The Growth Plan

Debate between Margaret Hodge and Kwasi Kwarteng

Friday 23rd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

My hon. Friend will know that, through growth, we will get more tax receipts, which will actually reduce the net debt to GDP ratio over the medium term. That is 100% what we are focused on. He is right that in the past we have tended to reduce expenditure on capital projects. We must not do that in the future if we are to pursue our levelling-up goals.

[Dame Margaret Hodge (Barking) (Lab)]

We expect our Government to implement policy based on evidence. As a student of history, the Chancellor will be familiar with Anthony Barber’s disastrous economic experiment in the 1970s. It was the same thing: low tax, deregulation and a desperate quest for growth. All that did was lead to the Barber boom, followed by a big crash and a three-day working week—it turned to bust. The Chancellor is risking all our livelihoods, he is risking our economy and he is risking our public finances on the altar of a discredited ideology. A tsunami of tax cuts and giveaways to 80,000 Conservative members who voted the Prime Minister into office, with little for the 80% of Britons who are struggling and facing a tough winter ahead, is outrageous. According to Einstein, insanity is trying to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Can the Chancellor not see that his Budget is madness?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

No, I think it is perfectly sane to want to grow the British economy by creating incentives. The Barber boom—the right hon. Lady is a student of history—was driven primarily by very loose monetary policy. It was essentially a demand pump-priming experiment. This is the opposite of that. What we are trying to do is create incentives and look at supply-side reform. It is a completely different model.

Corporate Transparency and Economic Crime

Debate between Margaret Hodge and Kwasi Kwarteng

Monday 28th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s remarks. I pay tribute to him, and to Members on both sides of the House, for the excellent work that they have done in ensuring that the measures have been introduced in a timely way. I look forward to working with him to ensure that we have a good regime. Let me also point out that we have £63 million in the spending review to deal precisely with the funding of Companies House.

[Dame Margaret Hodge (Barking) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State is sensing some frustration, and I will tell him why. The public register of beneficial ownership of properties that are foreign-owned was promised when David Cameron was Prime Minister in 2015. That had nothing to do with Brexit; it could have been introduced in that year. Then we come to Companies House. I am dismayed that all we are getting is a White Paper. We had an extensive consultation, completed a year ago, which built plenty of consensus around the reforms that were necessary. We do not need a White Paper; we need legislation, because that is what will stop this situation.

I am not sure that the Minister understands the issue of the enablers. There is hardly any ability for any of our enforcement agencies to get at those who not only collude with the process of dirty money coming into Britain, but facilitate it—lawyers, banks, accountants and others. If we do not stop them doing that, dirty money will continue to come in.

My final point to the Secretary of State is about the unexplained wealth orders. We greeted them with great expectations, but they have let us down. I would urge him to put a cost cap on litigation so that when we fail in an unexplained wealth order, the various recipients of dirty money do not get away with £2 million-worth in legal costs, as they did in one case.

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I am sure that my answer will not satisfy the right hon. Lady, but I am pleased that we are introducing this legislation, and I look forward to working with her and colleagues on both sides of the House in ensuring that it is right. As for the cap on unexplained wealth orders, I think it will be the subject of plenty of discussion imminently, when we introduce the legislation.