Budget Resolutions

Euan Stainbank Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)]

First, I want to rebut some of the nonsense that we heard from the SNP earlier. Scotland’s budget is going up by £600 million because of the choices made in this Budget for Scotland’s public services—that is up by £18 billion since Labour came into office—and talking of a £650 million cut is inadvertently misleading this House. I may say something a wee bit ruder outside the House.

This Budget will abolish gas standing charges, abolish VAT on electricity bills and give £100 to 1.8 million Scottish households between council tax bands A and D —if it is confirmed that the SNP will choose to hand it over in that way. The prices at the pumps that our constituents complain about have been brought about directly by the US and Israel’s war in Iran, but we have made a choice to freeze fuel duty, which I welcome, and maintain the 5p fuel duty cut till June. That is alongside the red diesel duty cut, which will be welcome in the many eligible sectors, especially agriculture.

As for working people in Falkirk, the permanent increase to the tax-free mileage should help traders who use their own vans for work. I also welcome the tripling of the trading allowance to £3,000. This Budget also rightly supports pensioners. Many pensioners in my constituency live on the state pension alone; as it has risen, too many have ended up with the administrative irritation of paying small amounts of income tax, with all the paperwork and worry that that brings. I welcome the new pension tax allowance from April 2027, which addresses that directly. It means that pensioners whose income is no more than the full state pension will not pay income tax.

To deliver good growth in my postcode, it is vital that we invest in the Grangemouth industrial complex, as I said last week. I welcome the British industrial competitiveness scheme, and the back-payment to 2026, but while I acknowledge the heightened cost of extending it to every manufacturing business—I believe that would be about £3.5 billion—I think, as do other colleagues, that we should look at extending it, especially for manufacturing businesses that are reliant on gas, and that have decarbonisation timescales that are not as quick as we might like.

I welcome the restatement of the Government’s intent to include refined products in the carbon border adjustment mechanism. It will be a vital tool in levelling the playing field, after the undermining of domestic refining. The same un-level playing field led to the closure of Grangemouth, because it was not dealt with over multiple years. A cross-party group wrote to the Treasury regarding this. I think it is important that we put a deadline on when we will introduce this, because this positive signal needs to be translated into real protection for our existing refining sector, as well as for the bio-refining sector that the Prime Minister rightly believes has huge potential to deliver for Grangemouth.

Turning to the Acorn project, I agree with the principle of getting better value for taxpayers’ money across Government capital plans, so that we can free up money for defence. I agree that that should include energy projects in our constituencies. Some of the rhetoric that we have heard from the SNP and their Ministers on supporting the project has been downright reckless and self-defeating. However, I hope that the Minister can acknowledge that much of the reasonable scrutiny on this has not been met with the clearest of answers. I would like to hear confirmation that the new route for previously committed funding has the support of all existing and committed commercial partners, and confirmation about the amount of funding committed already that is not being changed. I would also like to know why funding has been changed for Acorn but not for other carbon capture, usage and storage projects, such as Viking in Humberside, and, more broadly, what the changes will mean for reindustrialisation in communities like Grangemouth that are supposed to benefit from this infrastructure, especially considering that they have not had a fantastic experience with the debt equity model of the National Wealth Fund.

This Budget creates breathing space for families in Falkirk who are worried about the end of the month, and for the poorest pensioners who dread getting a tax letter. It lifts some of the pressure. This Government have shown in the Budget that they will act for working people, pensioners and industry. I ask Ministers to turn that breathing space into future certainty, particularly for an industry that can define the next 50 years positively, through new jobs, as it has defined the last 50.

--- Later in debate ---

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

The cost of living is the No. 1 issue that is raised with me on the doorstep by constituents across Paisley and Renfrewshire South, so there is much to welcome in this Budget, which gives much-needed breathing space for many working households. We Labour Members do not think that the increase in the national minimum wage is a bad thing—it is a good thing. The increase in the mileage rate will help working people, and I am glad that the Chancellor has extended the VAT cut for energy bills and will look to abolish gas standing charges. I also welcome the £100 household energy payment for households in council tax bands A to D, and I am hopeful that the SNP will pass this on to people across my constituency.

[Euan Stainbank]

Does my hon. Friend also call on the SNP to extend the business rates relief that our Labour Government have provided, especially considering that they have historically maintained a stricter system for high streets such as those in Paisley and Falkirk?

[Johanna Baxter]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that the SNP should pass on that much-needed change. I also note that the Budget provides an additional £600 million for the Scottish Government, and I hope that they will actually spend it on improving our public services.

Today’s debate focuses on achieving good growth in every postcode, an ambition I wholeheartedly support. One route to growth in postcodes PA1, PA2, PA3 and PA4—I could go on, but Members get my drift—is revitalising our high street in Paisley. Paisley is Scotland’s largest town, and we have a shovel-ready project in the middle of our high street that received planning permission four years ago, which is regenerating the Paisley Centre. Realising that ambition needs Governments to come together, but it could bring 330 jobs to our area and breathe life into our high street. If Treasury colleagues would like to see that potential for themselves, I would be very happy to show them around the area.

Our Government were elected on a clear manifesto commitment to end the need for emergency food parcels. As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on ending the need for food banks, I know that food banks provide a lifeline when people have nowhere else to turn, but emergency food provision should never become a normal part of life in Britain. A report published last week by the Trussell Trust laid out the scale of the challenge. Some 9 million people across the UK—more than the entire populations of Wales and Scotland combined—are at severe risk of hardship and needing to turn to a food bank. Hardship does not happen in isolation; it is driven by inadequate incomes, the high cost of essentials, and a lack of the support that people need in their communities. We also know that some groups of people are at higher risk of hunger and hardship than others. People who have disabilities, those who are in low-paid or insecure work, and children remain disproportionately affected by severe hardship. As such, I hope that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will reaffirm this Government’s commitment to end the need for emergency food parcels, and ensure that the upcoming 10-year plan sets out a clear path towards tackling the severe hardship that blights our communities.

The Government are rightly steadfast in our support for Ukraine. This House will be aware that I have campaigned extensively on the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia, and it was a pleasure to work with my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) when he was the Minister responsible for that issue. We worked on establishing a tracing pilot that provided vital intelligence on the whereabouts of thousands of Ukrainian children who had been taken by Russia. Save Ukraine is the leading non-governmental organisation working on the return and rehabilitation of Ukrainian children. When I met Save Ukraine representatives in September, they told me that the UK has been a leading partner. As of this morning, that practical support has helped them return 1,887 children. I therefore warmly welcome the announcement in the Budget that the Government have committed an additional £3 million to support the tracing programme until at least 2028, because the defence of Ukraine must also ensure the defence of its future. By committing to this vital work, we are doing just that. I thank the Chancellor for those measures.