James Murray MP: speeches

Speeches

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  I am not going to engage in speculation about tax measures or any of the mechanics around them. The hon. Member and his hon. Friends will simply have to wait until 26 November to hear the specifics of the Budget. At that point, I am sure that he and his colleagues will have plenty to say.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  The hon. Gentleman is right to remind everyone of the record under the short-lived Prime Minister, Liz Truss. I notice that Conservative Members do not refer to that themselves when evaluating the economic situation, but the British people will not forget it. On his wider point about housing across the country, we want to ensure that we are building affordable homes in every part of the country. One of this Government’s priorities has been to reform the planning system, to enable the building of 1.5 million homes and ensure that every community has those homes, so people have homes that they can afford to live in, in the area where they grew up, where they want to live or go to work. That is a central mission of this Government.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  I will give way one more time, but then I will make some progress.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  I am going to make some progress, because a few moments ago I said I would do so. I have been gently reminded by Madam Deputy Speaker that I really must live up to my promise on that front. The right hon. Member for Central Devon asked me questions in his opening remarks—indeed, his colleagues have their sheets from the Whips, and they have been dutifully following up in their comments—but they are on matters that we cannot talk about today. There are of course other important facts that the right hon. Gentleman does not want to talk about, but the British people have not forgotten them. There is the £22 billion black hole in our public finances, which the previous Government hid from the light. There is the disastrous mini-Budget, which caused damage to households across the country and to our reputation around the world. We had stalled housing, unfinished infrastructure and public services brought to their knees by under-investment and disinterest. The Conservatives do not want to talk about those things because that is the legacy of the last Government. We found out just today that the right hon. Gentleman does not even want to talk about things happening in Conservative councils, as my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy) raised so importantly in his contribution earlier. Now that the Conservatives are in opposition, the right hon. Gentleman’s party and Reform Members are talking Britain down. They want to claim that Britain is broken, but I believe that Britain is unbreakable. Our country is full of potential. It is home to hard-working people, brilliant businesses, world-leading universities and research institutions, cultural giants and the promise that if people work hard and contribute to the country, it will be a place where they can succeed. Yet undeniably, after 14 years of Tory mismanagement, far too many working people feel that the economy is stuck.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Sir Mel Stride) for opening the debate. I can tell that he spent his summer polishing some of his rhetorical flourishes, which he has shared with us today, but I suggest that he could have spent his time rather better. Thank you for your words of congratulation, Mr Speaker. It is a real honour to be here as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. May I put on record my tribute to my predecessor, now the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Darren Jones), for all his fantastic work, notably delivering the spending review? I welcome the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Dan Tomlinson), to his new role. I thoroughly enjoyed the role myself, and I am sure that he will be excellent in it. Conservative Members will appreciate that today’s motion, as tabled, simply cannot form the basis of a specific debate on individual tax measures. Members from across the House will know that the Government do not respond to speculation in advance of a Budget, which the Chancellor has today announced will take place on 26 November. This has long been the case: the shadow Chancellor knows it well and he knows that it would be irresponsible to engage in that speculation. Whatever political rhetoric he and his colleagues will use in today’s debate, and no matter how many variants of the same question they ask, I know that he will understand that I cannot engage with speculation about individual tax measures ahead of the Budget.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  My hon. Friend is absolutely right; economic growth is of course critical to our plans. She points to the trade deals that we secured. She and other hon. Members will know that the UK was the fastest-growing G7 economy in the first half of this year. There is much more for us to do, but we are showing that because of the right decisions that we have taken we are starting to move in the right direction.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the right hon. Member for his kind words. As he will know, welfare measures are already going through Parliament and being investigated by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability through the review that he is undertaking. This Government are determined to ensure that the safety net is there for the people who need it, and that the people who can work have the support they need to get and maintain a job.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  I gently remind the hon. Member that council tax—a tax on property—exists in this country, so the principle of applying some taxes to property is well established in the UK, and has been for some time. She is trying to tempt me to engage in more speculation, but as I said to the shadow Chancellor, I am not going to engage in speculation about what may or may not be in the Budget.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker—the hint is taken. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) for his intervention, and I thank his mother for her service to HMRC in the past. People at HMRC do an absolutely critical job in collecting the tax that is important in funding our public services and ensuring that our economy functions effectively. One of our priorities as a Government has been to close the tax gap that existed under the previous Government. At the Budget last year and in the spring statement earlier this year, we set out plans to raise an additional £7.5 billion in tax revenue as a result of hiring people to do those really important jobs, as well as investing in new technology and modernising the service to ensure that people pay the tax they owe.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source

  More

  I listened very carefully to the shadow Minister. He has clearly been taking theatrical lessons from his colleague the shadow Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Sir Mel Stride). Indeed, I have listened to all his colleagues during this debate, and frankly they have quite some cheek. They speak from the Opposition Benches, yet they failed to reflect honestly, even once, on why they are on that side of the House. The reason why the Conservatives are in opposition is that they not only ran our public services into the ground, but had given up on fiscal responsibility, which is critical for stability, investment and growth. When we won the election last year, it was our task to restore that responsibility and fix the £22 billion black hole in the public finances, which was a legacy of the previous Government’s waste and delay. [ Interruption. ] I know they hate to be reminded of it, but that is the truth. That is what we inherited. As my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said in opening the debate, we acted on that without delay on taking office. At last year’s Budget, the Chancellor acted decisively to stabilise the public finances and lay the foundations for investment in growth after 14 years of Tory decline. Rather than shirking responsibility, we took the necessary decisions to raise taxes and made the necessary choices to ensure that our NHS, schools and other vital public services received the funding they needed to get back on their feet. I thank all the hon. Members whom the shadow Minister mentioned in his summing-up speech, as well as my hon. Friends the Members for Glasgow East (John Grady), for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell), for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), for Rugby (John Slinger), for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman), and for Loughborough (Dr Sandher). Many hon. Members spoke about the choices that we have had to make as a Government. Let me be clear that while many of the decisions on tax have been difficult—we recognise that they have had consequences—we took every opportunity to make them as fair as possible. That is why, at last year’s Budget, we decided to end non-dom tax status and tax breaks for private school fees. It is also why we increased air passenger duty on private jets, raised stamp duty for those buying second homes, extended the oil and gas levy, and chose to raise capital gains and inheritance tax. It is why His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs implemented the biggest package of measures to close the tax gap that this country has ever seen. Those measures will ensure that everyone, including the wealthiest, pay the tax that they owe. Those choices have been the right ones to restore the public finances and get public services back on their feet, yet the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and Reform—who surprisingly are not here—all voted against our Finance Act 2025, which started to put our choices into action. They have refused time and again to support the decisions we have taken on tax, while refusing to say what funding for public services they would oppose as a result. The choices I have mentioned and other difficult choices we have made, such as the decision around employers’ national insurance, have been necessary to meet our fiscal rules. Let me be clear why those fiscal rules are so important, and why, under this Government, they will always be non-negotiable. The fiscal rules introduced by the Chancellor last year are this Government’s assurance to the markets that we will live within our means and pay our Government debt. They are not only crucial to keeping debt payments under control, but enable us to invest in the future of our country. Thanks to the Chancellor’s fiscal rules—the stability rule and the investment rule—we have been able to boost capital investment by £120 billion, compared with the previous Government’s plans. That investment will improve transport infrastructure, deliver more social and affordable housing, bring down bills through energy security, unlock further private sector investment and, most importantly, improve the lives of working people across Britain by making people better off. Without our plans to balance the books and get debt falling, our £120 billion of extra investment would not be possible, and taxpayers would see ever more of their money being spent on debt interest payments. We have taken the tough but fair and necessary choices to repair our public finances, so that we can rebuild our schools, our hospitals and our frontline services across the country. As many right hon. and hon. Members have said today, if Conservative Members disagree with our approach, maybe they can tell us whether they would cut spending on schools, hospitals or defence, or perhaps they can tell us which taxes they would raise instead. Rather than do that, the Conservatives and Reform are competing with each other to inherit the mantle of Liz Truss. They both blindly make unfunded promises on tax—promises that we all know would force up interest payments for families across Britain and cause economic chaos, which would hit working people hardest. The British people want security, stability, public services that work again, and more money in their pocket, and only Labour Members and this Labour Government are prepared to take the decisions that are necessary to make that happen. Question put.