Nusrat Ghani
Main Page: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)Department Debates - View all Nusrat Ghani's debates with the HM Treasury
(3 days, 6 hours ago)
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Amanda Martin
As a former teacher, I say no. I will continue with the term free school meals.
We are also seeing breakfast clubs to support pupils and families at the start of every day, additional nursery allocations to help working parents with the crazy cost of childcare, and investment in our NHS. All of those measures are the result of having a Labour Government and two Labour MPs in Portsmouth. I could go on, because that is just the tip of the iceberg of the investment and initiatives that are very much needed by the people of my city. This is reality, not imagination, speculation or politicking—not, in the words of the motion today, “considering”, but action.
None of that would have been possible without the decisions of this Government. Some, I admit, have been difficult, and some have been very necessary, such as placing the burden of tax on the very wealthiest, with private jet tax up 50%, stamp duty on second homes, changes to inheritance tax on big landowners, the scrapping of non-dom status, the ending of offshore trusts to stop inheritance tax avoidance, and VAT on private schools. Does the Minister agree that the investments like those in Portsmouth North are possible only because of the decisions and actions we have taken to raise revenue?
Those decisions, Madam Deputy Speaker, were repeatedly opposed by the Opposition. In bringing this debate, which is—in the words of Willy Wonka—one of “pure imagination”, they appear not to be considering an alternative, but to be going back to the status quo of 14 years of cuts and damage to Britain. This debate has been full of amnesia and sloping shoulders, with no regret and not one apology. It is a debate set to talk Britain and its people down—a debate ignoring the most positive things this Government have brought to the people of my city and this country.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
For the final contribution from the Back Benches, I call Melanie Ward.
Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)
Here we are, with another Opposition day debate and another tedious motion from the Conservatives that completely ignores the catastrophic economic inheritance they left for this Labour Government coming into power. Their decision to put Liz Truss into Downing Street is something they will never quite live down. It really does stick in the craw to be lectured on sound economic management by them. We have had some fine examples of that today, with the hon. Member for Bridgwater (Sir Ashley Fox) stating his belief that speculation about future measures damages the economy. Why, then, have the Conservatives today put down a motion that is entirely about speculation? It makes no sense, even on their own terms.
In government, the Conservatives did untold economic damage to the UK’s public finances, and the Chancellor is right to prioritise investment in our infrastructure and public services while ensuring sound economic management. The Conservatives talk of wanting to put more money in people’s pockets, yet they presided over the worst pay growth of any Government for a century. Had the Conservatives—and, we must not forget, the Liberal Democrats for a while—grown wages between 2010 and 2024 at the same pace as the previous Labour Government, the average worker would be £117 a week better off. [Interruption.] Opposition Members may heckle, but that is real money that could be in my constituents’ pockets which is not because of what their Government did.
It is this Labour Government who are putting money back in people’s pockets. Our increase to the national minimum wage means that wages are rising faster than prices, and 8,000 low-paid Fifers this year received a pay rise, including thousands in my constituency of Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy. Let us not forget that the Leader of the Opposition said that the minimum wage is a burden and that maternity pay is excessive. It is the Labour Government’s stewardship of the economy that means interest rates have fallen five times and average mortgages are now £1,000 a year less than when the Conservatives were in power. Again, that is real money in the pockets of my constituents. My constituents know that it is this Labour Government and this Labour Chancellor who have prioritised Kirkcaldy for multimillion-pound regeneration funding as part of the growth mission fund, beginning the transformation of our town centre, which was neglected for a decade and a half by the Tories, and for almost two decades by their enablers in the Scottish National party.
The old cliché that to govern is to choose is correct. All politics is about choice, and the difference between this Labour Government and the Opposition is that we have chosen to invest in our communities, in our public services and in increasing economic activity and wages, after they failed to do so under five Prime Ministers and seven Chancellors.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
We now come to the wind-ups. I call the shadow Secretary of State.
Sir James Cleverly
No, I will not give way.
Let me just say this: if we are to address the slowing of the housing market, we should make sure—[Interruption.] I say “we”, but Labour is in government now and it should therefore make sure that it does nothing to stagnate the market further. Speculation is rife that there will be a £14,000 tax bill on average for UK households, a £23,000 tax bill for those in the south-east, and potentially an average tax bill of £33,000 for property transactions. That is the Government’s fault. They have the opportunity to put that speculation to bed and they choose not to do so. Despite the fact that they are now in government, they do not seem to have learned the lesson that when they speak—whether it be on or off the record—markets move. That is why speculation among those on the Government Benches is so damaging and so dangerous. They are causing economic problems because of their kite flying. We have given them an opportunity to put one of those pieces of speculation to bed and they have failed to do so. In that failure, the mask has slipped—they want to put up taxes. They love putting up taxes and they are going to put up taxes.