Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Kirsty Blackman Excerpts

Wednesday 28th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)]

People desperately need support with the cost of living. They do not need brown sauce, gherkins or marmalade; they need help with the cost of living.

If we look at the documents the Chancellor produced today, he is less likely to hit his fiscal rules than the previous Chancellor was. That is what the back of the OBR book tells us. Real household disposable income is going to drop in the short term. Labour Members will be standing on an election platform saying “vote for us” when household disposable income, a fairly reasonable measure of living standards, is going to drop in the short term. It will rise again only if gas and energy prices do what the OBR hopes they do—the OBR has been very clear that that is not by any means set—but who would like to predict what Donald Trump is going to do next? I certainly wouldn’t. We do not know what will happen. The only way in which people’s living standards will increase is if the international energy markets reduce the price of gas and oil. That is what the Chancellor is pinning his hopes on.

The Chancellor is giving people £100 in this Budget, despite the fact that, as of January, energy bills will be £1,000 higher than Labour promised they would be in their manifesto—£1,000 higher. We have a situation where every single major household bill has increased over the course of this Government—every single one. We are seeing people really struggling with the cost of living, and what does the Chancellor decide to do? He decides to reprioritise capital spending. He decides to pull money from the Acorn project in the north-east of Scotland, which supports hundreds of jobs for carbon capture and storage, and which the Climate Change Committee said was one of the projects needed to get us to meet our climate change ambitions. That is one of the things the Chancellor has chosen to do today.

The other problem, for which the Conservatives have a significant responsibility for creating, is the fact that the UK has an incredible level of index-linked debt. I am pleased that the Chancellor is moving towards reducing the percentage of index-linked debt, but only three countries in the OECD have higher levels of index-linked debt: Mexico, Israel and Chile. Moving away from that legacy left by the Conservatives is really helpful in today’s financial climate. However, if the Government do not manage to make that, any slight change in the level of inflation or oil and gas prices could mean that the Chancellor massively misses his fiscal rules. The section on risk in the OBR’s Blue Book very clearly sets out how easily a very small percentage change could mean that the Chancellor will miss his rules. There is only about a 50% chance that is he going to hit the rules anyway—it is only about 52% in the back of the Blue Book. Therefore, given the volatility of the world, we should all be incredibly worried.

We needed something dramatic. We needed something major to ensure that people can survive this cost of living crisis. We had the child poverty strategy earlier in this Parliament. It was deeply, deeply unambitious other than the removal of the two-child limit, which I fought for and entirely welcomed. Other than that, every single thing had already been introduced or announced. In Scotland, we have a much better child poverty strategy and, in fact, the most comprehensive cost of living package in the UK.

People with children are looking at this Budget and thinking, “It does not help us.” Young graduates currently living with their parents up to the age of 25, which they have never done before, are looking at the student loans that they owe in England and thinking, “How can we possibly be paying our student loans until we’re 60, with no chance of a job?” Couples with children are looking at the fact that their parents could afford for one of them to work part time, could afford to have more children, and could still afford to go on an annual holiday. Couples now cannot afford that because they are poorer than the generations before. Folk in their 40s have no end in sight to their mortgage—whereas their parents had paid theirs off by then—because house prices have gone through the roof, and mortgage prices are even higher as a result of some of the decisions taken.

What is the Chancellor doing? He is providing cheaper gherkins—great! Disabled people who are desperate to work, but currently subsisting on universal credit, know that they cannot afford the fuel needed to drive their car to a job. They cannot do that, but what has the Chancellor delivered? One hundred pounds. That is not going to cut it. We have pensioners who are living in terror of their next energy bill. They have lost trust in this Government thanks to the winter fuel cut that came with no warning and what was done to the WASPI women.

The Chancellor has completely failed to recognise the huge number of people living in fear of the next bill dropping through the letterbox. He is living in a different reality from the rest of us. He is providing some changes around the edges. He says he is providing a little bit of breathing space, but it is not going to get people through this winter, never mind to the spending review or the Prime Minister’s wonderful 10-year plan that is supposed to be coming.

We have made different choices in Scotland. We provided the baby box. We provided a cost-of-living package that is the most comprehensive in the UK. We provided no prescription charges. We provided free university tuition. We do not have access to all the levers. We do not have the ability to do what we asked of the Chancellor, which was to cut energy bills by at least £300—not even close to the manifesto pledge but getting there. We asked the Chancellor to make a difference so that people can afford to get through this winter. We asked for the removal of VAT on various things, including petrol and diesel for the duration. We are pleased to hear the changes that have been announced on fuel, particularly on mileage, which makes a massive difference.

A couple of weeks ago when Jackdaw was announced, the Government talked about removing the gas standing charges. We know that this is going to put up the energy bills for those people who use the higher levels of gas. We know that people in Scotland have significantly colder properties because it is colder in Scotland than it is here. What is the differential change? How many people in Scotland will be losing far more, given the extra that they will be spending? How many disabled or elderly people, who spend more time at home, will have to pay more on their gas bills because of the Chancellor’s choices? Has he actually looked at that? Is it in any way a progressive measure, or will it continue to screw over those people who are already screwed over by the current situation? The Chancellor needs to do better.