Taxes

Robbie Moore Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Robbie Moore (Keighley and Ilkley) (Con)]

In my constituency there are dozens of hard-working family businesses, which are the backbone of our local economy and key to our local identity. These business owners get up early, go to bed late, work weekends, employ hundreds of local people and contribute hugely to our local high streets, local communities and local economy. But this Government seem desperate to squeeze every single penny out of those family businesses and into the hands of the Chancellor. The rise in employer national insurance puts a huge strain on the wage bill, especially when coupled with the rise in the minimum wage.

That is squeezing every single family business, as well as schools and hospices. Indeed, last weekend I took part in a local fundraising event—the Oxenhope straw race—which raises money for our local hospice, the Sue Ryder Manorlands hospice in the Worth Valley. Every year they do fundraising, but they tell me that instead of the money going to provide end-of-life care, it now goes straight to the Treasury through employer national insurance. The sad fact is that the large sums of money going to charities is not providing the support that is needed because it is going directly to the Treasury.

The business rate relief reduction is impacting many hard-working businesses across Keighley and Ilkley. The inheritance tax challenges are impacting many of our farming businesses and family farming businesses through slashing the 100% relief on agricultural property relief and business property relief to the £1 million threshold.

That is where the naivety kicks in. When we consider the size of the average farm in England—about 200 acres—and value the farmland, the house, the cottage, the growing crops, the machinery and the livestock, we reach well above the £1 million threshold, therefore exposing nearly every farming business to an inheritance tax liability. Those hard-working businesses make a return of less than 1%, if any at all, yet Labour Members say that they must have the weight of responsibility on their shoulders. That is a disgrace.

[Phil Brickell]

rose—

[Robbie Moore]

I will take a quick intervention from the hon. Member, but I hope that he will justify why those hard-working family farms and businesses in Keighley and Ilkley, who get up day in, day out, have to shoulder the burden for the mistakes that this Labour Government are making. Will he answer that point?

[Phil Brickell]

I thank the hon. Member for giving way. He is the third consecutive Conservative Member to stand up and speak, but I have yet to hear what proposals his party wants to bring in to raise revenue or what services it wants to cut. In my contribution, I made a conscious effort to set out three constructive proposals for the Treasury to consider, and I challenged Conservative Members because there was a dearth of—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Roger Gale)]

Order.

[Robbie Moore]

I am sure that the Government Whips were watching the hon. Gentleman and making a note that he will be in line for a job, and I saw the Minister quaking in his boots at the thought of those bizarre recommendations. The point is that the Labour Government do not realise that all these tax increases are hitting the many hard-working businesses across every constituency represented in this House. Shame on the Government for bringing them forward.

No matter how elaborate the rain dance or how impressive the Government press releases, growth will not come, precisely because of the decisions that the Chancellor has taken. We need a reset; we need a new direction; we need to limit spending so that we can cut tax, not consistently raise it. Until the Government realise that, I am afraid for all the family businesses up and down the country, which are being penalised time and again by this Labour Government.