Budget Resolutions

Ashley Fox Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)]

I was disappointed that the Chancellor did nothing to change the gift aid rules, which would have helped the Bridgwater carnival and many other community organisations and charities. The Bridgwater Guy Fawkes carnival is the most magnificent spectacle. It is Britain’s oldest carnival and the largest illuminated carnival in Europe, and it is taking place on Saturday. Like so many good causes, the carnival raises much of its funds in small cash donations, often loose change collected in a bucket on the night, yet it can only claim gift aid for a maximum of £2,000 on those small donations—a figure that has not been increased for 10 years. Will the Chancellor please consider increasing the limit? That would make a huge difference to organisations that collect so much of their funds in small cash donations.

Despite making so many changes in his Budget, the Chancellor has not reinstated the listed places of worship grant scheme, which his predecessor abolished. This means that communities who worship in a listed building, such as the parish of St Andrews in Burnham-on-Sea, will have to bear the full cost of VAT on the repairs that their historic church requires. The scheme that replaced the old one is less generous and has a capped budget. We should cherish our beautiful listed churches and take care of them for future generations. I will continue to press the Chancellor to renew the scheme in full, to make sure that our congregations are not charged an extra 20% for vital repairs.

There are 98 separate measures in the Red Book, and many of them will further complicate Britain’s already byzantine tax code. Do we really need a new founders’ relief from capital gains tax? We are told that it will be for

“qualifying founders of high-growth, innovative companies”.

That perhaps sounds good for a Labour tax relief, but would it not be better to lower the rate of CGT for everyone, rather than add another carve-out for accountants and lawyers to argue about? Britain needs lower tax rates with fewer exemptions, not additional complications that drive up the cost of compliance.

The fundamental problem that Britain faces today is simple: we are running out of money. Unless we change course soon, every other problem will become harder to solve. Our national debt is now £3 trillion, and every year Labour is adding tens of billions more. At a time of international uncertainty, we must spend more on defence, but this Government cannot do so because they refuse to cut welfare. We need a plan to cut debt, fund defence and get Britain growing again.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Dan Tomlinson)]

It is a pleasure to close this Budget debate on good growth in every postcode. I thank Members from across the House for their contributions in today’s debate. In particular, I want to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Sagal Abdi-Wali) for her fantastic maiden speech. She spoke powerfully of the “everyday way”, in her words, that people in her part of London look out for each other. I know that she will look out for her constituents every single day. I, along with Members from across the House, I am sure, warmly welcome her to the Labour Benches.

The Budget last week was a Budget to provide breathing space now and fresh hope for the future. It backed British business to unleash growth in every postcode and it kick-started the changes needed to put our country on a better course. It was also a Budget set against the backdrop of global economic storms, with trade tensions acting as a drag on global growth and Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine approaching the end of its fifth year. These shocks may be global, but the effects are being felt here at home.

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, we will spend £14 billion more each year on debt interest compared with the previous forecast. The Government’s responsibility is, of course, to determine how to respond to that. We have chosen to respond by using some of the headroom, which was built up last year, to absorb the impacts of the war and to protect the economy and family budgets as much as possible. We have also chosen, crucially, to meet the fiscal rules in full, with borrowing falling in every year of the forecast.

Britain’s economic reputation was badly damaged under the Conservatives—so badly damaged, in fact, that the IMF publicly warned them to change course. The contrast now could not be clearer. The IMF said recently that the UK “stands out” as a country where we are taking

“action to reduce the debt and deficit”

and that action “has been taken decisively”. Despite the warnings from forecasters and the gloomsters on the Opposition Benches that our economy would slow down, Britain has defied expectations this year. The OBR has upgraded the UK’s growth forecast and in the first half of this year we had the joint-fastest growth in the G7. Productivity growth is up at 2.2% a year, compared with an average growth rate of 0.5% a year between 2015 and 2024.

[Sir Ashley Fox]

If everything is going so well, why is Britain paying more to borrow money than any other country in Europe?

[Dan Tomlinson]

The hon. Member is right to raise the fact that we are spending a large share of our budget on debt interest costs; £1 in every £10 is spent paying the interest on our debt. That was an increase that took place under the Conservatives after the spike in interest rates in 2022 under Liz Truss’s mini-budget, and the apprentice to Liz Truss is now the shadow Chancellor.

Real wages have risen more since the election than in the first 10 years of the Conservative Government. Opposition Members talked about the private sector in the economy. I would point out to them that whole-economy investment and business investment have grown by more in this Parliament so far than they did in the entirety of the last Parliament. We are turning the economy around from the hellscape it was under the previous Government.

We are building on our recent economic resilience through this Budget. We are delivering immediate measures to help with rising energy bills: a £100 household energy payment directly to those living in property bands A to D in England, alongside a reduction to 0% VAT on electricity until July. We are also abolishing gas standing charges on household energy bills, while extending the 5p fuel duty cut and the cut to red diesel. We are reducing bills by up to 25% for more than 10,000 eligible businesses from next April through the British industrial competitiveness scheme.