Budget Resolutions

Bobby Dean Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and may I say what a delight it is to see you in the Chair this evening?

I was not going to start by saying this, but I agree with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when—and I may misquote him slightly—he spoke about “decent jobs at decent wages.” I absolutely agree, and that is what we all want to see in every one of our constituencies right across the country. However, I do not believe that this Budget goes any way towards delivering those decent jobs at decent wages, and certainly not in Staffordshire.

As we look at what is happening, we are seeing inflation rising. G7 comparisons are trotted out, but we will have the highest inflation in the G7 this year and also next year. The OBR has forecast that inflation will stay higher for longer, and why is that? It is because of the Chancellor’s last Budget. I am not sure whether this Budget will have helped reduce those pressures, but the initial indications certainly seem to be that it will not. This is a real problem because it is impacting people’s real lives. We are seeing food price inflation rising in 2025: it was 4.9% in October, up from 4.5% in September. This is having an impact on everyone’s lives—on their household incomes and how they get by.

This is a very bad Budget for jobs in Staffordshire, because nothing is being done at all for the ceramics industry. It is not as large an employer as it used to be 30 years ago, but it is still an important employer, whether at Dunoon in my constituency, Steelite, Churchill or so many other great businesses producing pottery in Staffordshire. This Budget will make it more difficult for them to produce pottery in Staffordshire, because it will mean they have higher costs. Having spoken to some of those working in the ceramics industry only last week, I know that a third of everything they spend is on energy costs. To compare this with the United States or continental Europe, producers are looking at half the price of what Staffordshire businesses are paying for their energy costs. How are we able to compete on the global stage if we do not help those producing in this country to have energy costs that mean they are competitive? I appreciate that the Minister summing up is the Secretary of State for Transport, but I hope that she will be able to respond to that point.

One of the most successful technology companies in this country is based not in London or Cambridgeshire, but in Stoke-on-Trent, and it is called bet365. It is the world’s leading technology company for betting. It employs 5,500 people in Stoke-on-Trent, and it is the single biggest private sector employer there. Those who work there live not just in Stoke-on-Trent, but right across Staffordshire, the north-west and the country. However, this Budget could destroy one of our most successful technology sectors, and for what? On the gambling tax increases, the OBR noted in its analysis:

“The behavioural responses to these changes are uncertain but are estimated to reduce the yield by around one-third. We estimate that operators will seek to pass through around 90 per cent of the duty increases by increasing prices or reducing payouts, leading to a reduction in consumer demand which reduces the yield from the measure by £0.5 billion by 2029-30. The elasticities used to estimate the demand effect also capture potential substitution to the illicit market, and substitution between different forms of gambling due to the tax differentials introduced through this policy.”

This will be a hammer blow to jobs in the city of Stoke-on-Trent and in Staffordshire.

[Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)]

The right hon. Member mentions that bet365 is based in Stoke. Could he explain to us why it is also based in Gibraltar and Malta?

[Sir Gavin Williamson]

This company operates internationally: bet365 is one of the most successful technology companies in this country, and it operates right across the globe. It is quite understandable why it does so, but the hon. Gentleman probably does not care about jobs in Staffordshire. He has probably not ever thought about jobs in Staffordshire, and he does not mind if they all move to Malta or some other jurisdiction. That is not for him to worry about, but it is for me to worry about, as it is for other Members who represent seats in Staffordshire.

This Budget is an absolute hammer blow to an industry that is providing high-quality, well-paid jobs in Staffordshire and in a city that has seen the decline of coalmining, the decline of ceramics and so many job losses over so many decades, and bet365 has been one of the most responsible employers by investing in the local community, investing in charity and paying its taxes here in the United Kingdom. In fact, its owners are the highest payers of tax in the whole United Kingdom. This will see jobs being lost right across my county. It is destroying the old industries of Staffordshire while at the same time destroying the new industries in Staffordshire, making sure that the people of Staffordshire will be worse off and suffer as a result of this Budget.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)]

When we cut through it all, the central choices in this Budget were to increase the fiscal headroom and spend more on welfare, and to pay for it via an income tax threshold freeze. I am not sure why Labour Members are reluctant to describe it in that way, because it does contain some legitimate political choices.

I welcome the increase in fiscal headroom. It was creating far too much uncertainty in our economy. I pointed that out to the Chancellor when she was before the Treasury Committee in the spring, and I am glad that the Treasury has now corrected that mistake. I welcome the abolition of the two-child benefit cap, which the Liberal Democrats voted for—I think it was one of our very first votes in this Parliament. The Chancellor explained over the weekend that she was able to afford it because of taxes on the gambling industry, but that industry existed last year, so she could have done it then.

My issue is not with those measures but with how they are to be paid for. There are others that could have paid their fair share, the first of which is the banks, which have been completely let off the hook. They have made unforecasted windfall profits over the last few years, particularly because of the quantitative tightening programme and the interest rates. Many, including the Liberal Democrats, have argued that we should tax those windfall profits and put them to good use, but it seems like the banking industry’s lobbying efforts have paid off.

When comparing the top 10% with the bottom 10%, the Budget appears to be progressive, but a deeper analysis shows that the top 0.1% have been let off the hook, particularly with measures such as the dividend rates, where the additional rate has been left completely untouched, and the cap that has been introduced for non-dom contributions in inheritance tax. While we are on the non-dom regime, I know that some Members have said that all the non-doms have fled the country, but I point them to page 82 of the OBR’s Blue Book, which says that the estimated revenue from that regime will remain broadly unchanged.

Really, all this discussion is a dead end. We are just talking about redistribution. What is really important is what is not in the Budget. As the Federation of Small Businesses puts it, we must get out of this doom loop of tax measures to balance the books. The Budget is far too short-term in its thinking, and we need more long-term vision. Last summer the Chancellor seemed to get this. She promised that her focus would be on growth, yet her first Budget hit businesses with the rise in national insurance contributions, which has hit employment and set a mood of doom and gloom in our economy.

We had a zero-based spending review from which no significant changes to spending emerged. I cannot list a single area of Government spending that changed fundamentally after that review. We have seen tax measures that are piecemeal, and no significant efforts at reform. Economists from left and right all agree that the UK tax system is in a mess. Property taxation and the way that we treat different types of income are in desperate need of reform, and we have not seen that from the Government.

Then, of course, there is the elephant in the room, which only the Liberal Democrats are willing to address: our relationship with Europe. The strategy with Europe is to have tiny negotiations over small measures. We need a proper customs union. That will deliver the growth that our economy needs.

Ultimately, this Government lack the ambition to rewire our economy. We need to stop capital pouring overseas by changing the incentives to invest in this country. We need to look at corporate governance and make sure that it serves the British economy well. We need to look at devolving real economic power, not a reorganisation of local government, and we need to stop triangulating between the people who think net zero is a good or bad thing and ensure that Britain can be a green superpower in the 21st century.

The Budget gets us through another year, but it does not excite me for the future. The country was promised change—where is it?