Taxes

James Murray Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (James Murray)]

I listened very carefully to the shadow Minister. He has clearly been taking theatrical lessons from his colleague the shadow Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Sir Mel Stride). Indeed, I have listened to all his colleagues during this debate, and frankly they have quite some cheek. They speak from the Opposition Benches, yet they failed to reflect honestly, even once, on why they are on that side of the House.

The reason why the Conservatives are in opposition is that they not only ran our public services into the ground, but had given up on fiscal responsibility, which is critical for stability, investment and growth. When we won the election last year, it was our task to restore that responsibility and fix the £22 billion black hole in the public finances, which was a legacy of the previous Government’s waste and delay. [Interruption.] I know they hate to be reminded of it, but that is the truth. That is what we inherited. As my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said in opening the debate, we acted on that without delay on taking office. At last year’s Budget, the Chancellor acted decisively to stabilise the public finances and lay the foundations for investment in growth after 14 years of Tory decline. Rather than shirking responsibility, we took the necessary decisions to raise taxes and made the necessary choices to ensure that our NHS, schools and other vital public services received the funding they needed to get back on their feet.

I thank all the hon. Members whom the shadow Minister mentioned in his summing-up speech, as well as my hon. Friends the Members for Glasgow East (John Grady), for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell), for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), for Rugby (John Slinger), for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman), and for Loughborough (Dr Sandher).

Many hon. Members spoke about the choices that we have had to make as a Government. Let me be clear that while many of the decisions on tax have been difficult—we recognise that they have had consequences—we took every opportunity to make them as fair as possible. That is why, at last year’s Budget, we decided to end non-dom tax status and tax breaks for private school fees. It is also why we increased air passenger duty on private jets, raised stamp duty for those buying second homes, extended the oil and gas levy, and chose to raise capital gains and inheritance tax. It is why His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs implemented the biggest package of measures to close the tax gap that this country has ever seen. Those measures will ensure that everyone, including the wealthiest, pay the tax that they owe.

Those choices have been the right ones to restore the public finances and get public services back on their feet, yet the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and Reform—who surprisingly are not here—all voted against our Finance Act 2025, which started to put our choices into action. They have refused time and again to support the decisions we have taken on tax, while refusing to say what funding for public services they would oppose as a result. The choices I have mentioned and other difficult choices we have made, such as the decision around employers’ national insurance, have been necessary to meet our fiscal rules.

Let me be clear why those fiscal rules are so important, and why, under this Government, they will always be non-negotiable. The fiscal rules introduced by the Chancellor last year are this Government’s assurance to the markets that we will live within our means and pay our Government debt. They are not only crucial to keeping debt payments under control, but enable us to invest in the future of our country. Thanks to the Chancellor’s fiscal rules—the stability rule and the investment rule—we have been able to boost capital investment by £120 billion, compared with the previous Government’s plans. That investment will improve transport infrastructure, deliver more social and affordable housing, bring down bills through energy security, unlock further private sector investment and, most importantly, improve the lives of working people across Britain by making people better off.

Without our plans to balance the books and get debt falling, our £120 billion of extra investment would not be possible, and taxpayers would see ever more of their money being spent on debt interest payments. We have taken the tough but fair and necessary choices to repair our public finances, so that we can rebuild our schools, our hospitals and our frontline services across the country.

As many right hon. and hon. Members have said today, if Conservative Members disagree with our approach, maybe they can tell us whether they would cut spending on schools, hospitals or defence, or perhaps they can tell us which taxes they would raise instead. Rather than do that, the Conservatives and Reform are competing with each other to inherit the mantle of Liz Truss. They both blindly make unfunded promises on tax—promises that we all know would force up interest payments for families across Britain and cause economic chaos, which would hit working people hardest. The British people want security, stability, public services that work again, and more money in their pocket, and only Labour Members and this Labour Government are prepared to take the decisions that are necessary to make that happen.

Question put.