Darren Jones MP: speeches 2025

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Speeches

15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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Madam Deputy Speaker, it is because the review is named after the Member, which led to my naming him, but the Timms review will be taking forward that work and coming forward with proposals in due course. If Conservative Members wish to challenge the fiscal rules, I invite them to do so. Do they instead think it would be wise to let debt balloon year on year, as they did, to pay for the day-to-day costs of Government, ultimately spending more and more on debt interest and less on the priorities of working people? In contrast, our fiscal rules are non-negotiable, and they are the foundation for stability and investment. The first rule is for stability—that day-to-day Government spending should be paid for through tax receipts—which is the sound economic choice and also the fair choice, because it is not right to expect our children and future generations to pay for the services we rely on today. This first rule allowed my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, at the Budget last year, to allocate £190 billion more to the day-to-day running of our public services over the course of this Parliament. The second fiscal rule has enabled this Government to invest in Britain’s economic renewal while getting public debt on a downward path. This rule has allowed the Chancellor to increase public investment by over £100 billion in the autumn and a further £13 billion this spring—investment to rebuild our transport network, our defence capabilities and our energy security. In short, it is investment to grow our economy, improve living standards and put more money into the pockets of working people in every part of the country.
15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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Of course we engage with businesses, small and large, week in, week out, as Ministers in the Treasury, across Government, and in our constituency capacities. As Members know, the introduction of the employer national insurance contributions was weighted with changes in the threshold for payment with the aim of reducing the burden on smaller businesses. We recognised that we were honouring our promise to working people not to increase the headline rates of employee income tax or national insurance in their pay slips. Like other benefits that replace income, the state pension is taxable, but the personal allowance will continue to exceed the basic and full new state pension, which means that pensioners whose sole income is the full new state pension or basic state pension without any increments will not pay any income tax. The state pension continues to be the foundation of the support available to pensioners, backed by this Government’s commitment to the triple lock. This year more than 12 million pensioners have benefited from a 4.1% increase in their basic or new state pension, which means that under this Government those on a full new state pension will receive an additional £470. The full new state pension is currently projected to go up by around £1,900 over the course of this Parliament, on the basis of the latest forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility. I note that Members of opposition parties have not opposed these spending plans. They have not said that they think the NHS should get less money this year, or that we have too many teachers, nurses or police officers. If they support our spending plans, I simply ask: how would they pay for them?
15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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That is a slightly odd question, but I can definitely confirm that any tax changes, one way or the other, will be announced by the Chancellor at the Dispatch Box in the normal way in the autumn. As I say, Conservative Members are welcome to come forward with suggestions about how they might pay for the decisions that this Government have taken. Maybe they disagree with our fiscal rules, which are our assurance to the financial markets that we will live within our means and reduce Government debt.
15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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As the right hon. Gentleman knows, my colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions, with the Stephen Timms review and other work, are taking those measures forward.
15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I congratulate the shadow Chancellor on another theatrical performance—one that I know we all enjoyed across the House. I remember fondly his previous attempts to weave the story of “Alice in Wonderland” into his contributions. The only conclusion I can draw today is that he has not found his way out of the rabbit hole just yet. The shadow Chancellor made a number of points where he seemed to rewrite history. It was all the fault of Russia invading Ukraine, with not one mention of Liz Truss—“Who’s that? We’ve never heard of her.” When asked why, if everything was so hunky-dory under the Conservatives, they suffered such an historic loss, the answer was, “Oh, I don’t know.” There was no answer to the question. We had hope when he said, “I will tell the House what I would do differently.” I sat and listened carefully, and the grand reveal: “I would focus on productivity.” Well, I think the Conservatives said that before, and how did that go? Not one policy, suggestion or apology for their record—not one thing. In contrast, this Government were elected with an historic landslide and on a mandate of change. [ Interruption. ] Conservative Members question our historic landslide, but they should look at the number of seats we have on our side of the House, and how many they have on theirs. I encourage them to remember that the aim of the game is to get Members in this House. It was an historic landslide for the Labour party at the last election, elected on the promise of change—to put pounds in the pockets of working people and to deliver for the renewal of Britain. At the Budget last year we fixed the foundations, stabilising the public finances and putting Britain back on the road to growth, after 14 years of Conservative waste and decline. [ Interruption. ] I know that the Conservatives do not want to hear it, but every time one of them gets up to speak—we have heard it already—it is as if they have forgotten about the £22 billion black hole they left in the public finances. Rather than act to fix it, they called an election, ran away and left it for us to clear up their mess. This Labour Government will never repeat the mistakes of the Conservative party.
15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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A working person is someone who goes to work, and in our manifesto we made a very clear commitment to protect working people through the taxes they pay on their pay slips—which is something that we experience when we go to work. However, we did more than that. We ended tax breaks for private schools to help fund new teachers and raise education standards, supporting more than 90% of children in state schools to achieve and thrive. We removed the outdated concept of domicile status from the tax system, so that all long-term residents of the United Kingdom pay their fair share of taxes here. We ensured that the UK tax system remains internationally competitive, reforming the tax treatment of carried interest. We took further action by raising the higher rates for additional dwellings for stamp duty land tax to support first-time buyers and main home movers, giving them a competitive advantage. We made changes to the energy profits levy to ensure that oil and gas companies contribute to the clean energy transition. In the Budget last autumn the Government introduced the most ambitious package ever to close the tax gap, ensuring that more individuals and businesses pay the taxes they owe.
15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend, who is an excellent champion for her constituency. She is right to point out that the investment announced for her constituency was a consequence of the decisions made by this Chancellor and this Labour Government to invest in the renewal of Britain.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for demonstrating the real consequences of fiscal discipline, but also the fact that the Chancellor updated the fiscal rules to allow for investment in precisely the kinds of projects my hon. Friend mentions in his constituency—in hospitals, schools, better roads, public transport and more affordable housing across the country.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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Let me point to the fact that wages are now increasing faster than costs—for the first time in many years. He also invited me to comment on childcare provision, which the Government agree is important to families, whether middle-class or otherwise. We have extended school-based nurseries and breakfast clubs in schools, and have subsidised childcare in nurseries across the country to help working families get to work and be able to afford to do so.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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Because of the Chancellor’s decision to update the definition of debt— [Interruption.] We have been able to unlock billions of pounds of investment into houses and schools and hospitals and GP surgeries across the country. Opposition Members may laugh but, as my hon. Friend points out, they have no plan to share with anyone at all.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend speaks passionately, because his constituents know that they were worse off at the end of 14 years of the Conservatives than when they started. He knows that this Labour Government are committed to making his constituents better off at this end of this Parliament than they were at the start. That is what our investment in the renewal of Britain is about, and it is what this Labour Government will deliver.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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As the shadow Chancellor knows, it is a long-standing convention of this and previous Governments not to provide a running commentary on a fiscal forecast, and it is for the independent Office for Budget Responsibility to assess performance against the Government’s fiscal rules in its official economic and fiscal forecast. In the most recent forecast, published in March alongside the spring statement, the OBR confirmed that the Government were on track to meet their fiscal rules two years ahead of target. It also confirmed that the Government were on track to meet their fiscal rules early in the Budget last autumn. This is a choice—a responsible choice. When we contrast it with the actions of Conservative Members, who lost control of the public finances, we see working people across the country still paying the price. In line with the usual process, the Chancellor will ask the OBR to produce a new fiscal forecast in the autumn for the annual Budget. That forecast will include an updated assessment of the Government’s performance against their fiscal rules. As the Prime Minister confirmed last week, the Government are committed to their fiscal rules, which remain non-negotiable. We have seen what happens when fiscal rules are put to one side— [ Interruption. ] Conservatives Members may be chuntering from their sedentary positions, but families across the country are still paying the price of the consequences of Liz Truss’s experiment through higher mortgage payments, and we are not going to put the nation’s finances at risk as the Conservatives have done. In contrast, this Government are meeting their fiscal rules and, as a consequence of the Chancellor’s decisions, we are investing billions of pounds in the renewal of Britain: in schools, hospitals, affordable homes and public transport and in keeping the nation safe. Any future fiscal plans will be set out at the Budget in the normal way.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I congratulate my hon. Friend on being so successful. The amount of investment that he has secured for his constituency is clearly a testament to his ability to represent it. He is right to point to all those investments, because part of the Chancellor’s economic strategy is investing in the renewal of Britain to benefit not just his constituents, but all our constituents across the country.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I know that the hon. Member and colleagues in Birmingham are in correspondence and communication with relevant Ministers in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. I point him to the fact that this Government have increased the local government grant by up to £2 billion by the end of this period—by 2028-29—and that we have given local government long-term certainty with multi-year budgets for the first time in many years, to allow them to plan for the future.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I refer the hon. Lady to my previous answer.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for his pertinent question. It rather begs the question of whether the last Conservative Government had any fiscal rules at all. Based on the experience of all of us paying our mortgages and rent, and looking at the cost of inflation at the back end of the last Parliament, the answer is no.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I think the hon. Member is referring to employer’s national insurance contributions, which—as I have set out to the House—were designed to limit the burden on smaller businesses, with bigger businesses paying more. That was the way that the system was designed, and that was the system that the Chancellor put forward.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right. If any party on the Opposition Benches wants to be competitive in the next election, it needs to set out what it proposes to do with the country and how it will pay for it. Time and again, whether it is the Conservative party, Reform UK, the Green party or any other party, it is all promises of jam tomorrow, with no idea about how to pay for it. The public have been burned by that already because of the last Government, and they will not be burned by it again.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend knows that this Labour Government are committed to fiscal and political stability, because that is what matters for family finances and getting this country back on track after years of chaos under the Conservatives.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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The hon. Member knows that the Chancellor will set out any decisions on tax one way or the other in the Budget, which she will do in the autumn.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I share the sympathies of the House with the family of my hon. Friend’s constituent. My hon. Friend is right to point out that investment in HMRC had been cut over many years, which made it harder for tax to be collected from those who needed to pay it. The Chancellor has invested significant sums in HMRC to improve customer services for everybody who uses it, and to ensure that we are getting in the tax receipts that will pay for our public services.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming the trade deals that this Government have entered into with the United States, India and the European Union, with whom we got a great deal, especially on food and drink imports and exports, which will result in lower prices on the shelves of our supermarkets across the country. As my hon. Friend knows, we have committed to an annual summit with our counterparts in the European Union, and I am sure that my ministerial colleagues will set out further detail on those negotiations in due course.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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This Government recognise that it was because of cuts, especially to capital investment through the austerity years under the Conservative Government, that we had such poor productivity in our economy. We are still suffering the consequences of that, which is why, as the Chancellor said at the Budget, we are choosing investment over decline.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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I agree with my hon. Friend that we have had four interest rate cuts under this Government which is good for mortgage holders and renters. Wages have increased faster than costs for the first time in many years, and the Chancellor has been able to invest billions of pounds in our country while keeping markets stable. That is the consequence of stability in our economy and in our politics and the fact that we are implementing our fiscal rules in the way we said we would.
7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source
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In a more conciliatory tone to Conservative Members, let me say that they have so few MPs they had no choice.

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