Category: Economy

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on New Economics Foundation Report on Regional Inequality

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on New Economics Foundation Report on Regional Inequality

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 24 September 2020.

    Labour warned this summer that certain places around the UK would be disproportionately hit by the growing jobs crisis, and that the Government’s blanket approach to the furlough scheme failed to understand the nature of this recession.

    Communities with particularly large proportions of their workforce in manufacturing, retail and hospitality have felt the economic impact of Coronavirus more deeply.

    As we approach a cliff-edge in financial support with more restrictions being introduced, the Government must urgently outline a replacement to furlough – or risk deepening regional inequalities.

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on her Calls for Government to Rethink Furlough Arrangements

    Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on her Calls for Government to Rethink Furlough Arrangements

    The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 24 September 2020.

    I have been warning for months and months that the Chancellor’s one-size-fits-all withdrawal of furlough support was a recipe for a jobs disaster this autumn. I gave the Chancellor 40 chances to u-turn on this, and 20 times his Government ruled out any change.

    I gave the Chancellor solutions too. In May I said we should be considering a flexible, short hours scheme. In August I told the Chancellor to look to countries like Germany which already have such schemes up and running. And just this week I put forward Labour’s plan for a Job Recovery Scheme that would allow businesses to bring back staff on reduced hours.

    Time and time again the Chancellor failed to listen, and now tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs. Too slow on lockdown, too slow on testing, too slow on schools – and too slow to protect jobs.

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on British Chambers of Commerce’s 26 Unanswered Questions

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on British Chambers of Commerce’s 26 Unanswered Questions

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary, on 24 September 2020.

    The fact that so many fundamental questions for businesses remain unanswered when we’re getting down to the wire just underlines that this Government is not on the side of business.

    Business organisations have been asking these questions for months, and the absence of information and leadership from the Government means they are understandably finding it difficult to plan for the future. Paired with a looming furlough cliff-edge, they are operating under extreme uncertainty.

    The Government promised an oven-ready deal, but their incompetence is plain to see. They must stop prevaricating, focus on getting the deal they promised and giving businesses the answers they need, and ensure all preparations are in place for the end of the transition period.

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Recover, Train and Rebuild

    Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Recover, Train and Rebuild

    The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 21 September 2020.

    Recover jobs, retrain workers and rebuild business. Three steps to a better, more secure future. Government working hand in hand with business and trade unions, in the best interests of our country.

    This is an ambitious Labour vision – where security and fairness aren’t just aspirations, but where they are a reality for families and communities across our country.

    New leadership so people can have hope for the future, with a government that they can trust, not one which plays political games.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2020 Comments on ONS Statistics on Fall in Workers

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2020 Comments on ONS Statistics on Fall in Workers

    The comments made by Jonathan Reynolds, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, on 15 September 2020.

    These new figures are deeply concerning, over 5 million people are not working and 2.5 million have been out of work for three months or more.

    Unemployment will continue to rise unless the Government acts now and adopts a more flexible approach targeted at the sectors that need it most.

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Sick Pay

    Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Sick Pay

    The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 15 September 2020.

    The Chancellor refused to say whether he could survive on Statutory Sick Pay at just £95 a week.

    We already know the Health Secretary doesn’t think UK sick pay is enough to live on.

    Rishi Sunak’s evasive answers did nothing to dampen the suspicion that he is blocking efforts to make it better.

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Government Tax Rises

    Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Government Tax Rises

    The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 15 September 2020.

    The Chancellor was asked a simple yes or no question about whether he would rule out announcing new tax rises this year – and he failed to answer it.

    It only fuels speculation that he wants to hike taxes now just so he can cut them before the next election. He’s playing politics with people’s jobs and livelihoods.

    The Chancellor should be focused relentlessly on protecting jobs, not floating a tax and cuts agenda that could choke off our national recovery just when the economy is at its weakest.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2020 Comments on Treasury Select Committee Report

    Bridget Phillipson – 2020 Comments on Treasury Select Committee Report

    The comments made by Bridget Phillipson, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, on 11 September 2020.

    It’s good to hear the Treasury Select Committee echo Labour’s calls for targeted support for jobs and businesses beyond the Chancellor’s October cliff edge.

    This report adds to the chorus of warnings that the Chancellor’s one-size-fits-all withdrawal of wage support risks a huge spike in unemployment this autumn.

    Labour, trade unions, businesses, think tanks, backbench Tory MPs and now the Treasury Select Committee are all sounding the alarm. What will it take to make this stubborn Chancellor listen?

  • Darren Jones – 2020 Speech on Protecting Jobs

    Darren Jones – 2020 Speech on Protecting Jobs

    The text of the speech made by Darren Jones, the Labour MP for Bristol North West, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2020.

    My simple request of Ministers today is that they summon the confidence to target support where it is needed most. The Chief Secretary said today to the House that he would not do that because a number of questions need answering. I may be old-fashioned—I hope he listens, as he leaves the Chamber—but I am sure it is for Ministers to answer the questions, not to sit back and wait for others to do their homework for them. If the Chief Secretary is not willing to provide sector-specific support, perhaps he could set out at the Dispatch Box why he is not willing to do that, as opposed to posing questions to Members in this House and deflecting from the call to arms.

    Supporting the industrial foundations needed for our recovery and our future growth is right not just in terms of industrial policy, but in terms of spending taxpayers’ money.

    The Government are understandably borrowing significant amounts of money, but they must spend every pound prudently. Wasting a few billion here and a few billion there is not acceptable when there are so many jobs and businesses on the line.

    Ministers today might refer to HMRC reports that an estimated £3.5 billion has been fraudulently claimed from the furlough scheme, but that is the obvious pitfall of an open-to-all scheme. Bespoke packages of support to strategically important sectors would be negotiated directly with those businesses, with the due diligence and obligations that come with that. I hope that Ministers, too, will have the sophistication to differentiate support for the strategically important sectors—important for the foundations of our economy and our future growth—and the vast number of jobs in the broader economy that fish around them. If strategically important sectors cannot reopen or get back to work, the knock-on effect for bus drivers, security guards, coffee shops and the like, as well as the hospitality, creative and tourism sectors that rely on workers having money to spend, is clearly significant.

    I have confidence that the Government are able to meet those challenges. In addition to sector-specific support, including for sectors that will take longer to reopen, that means two things. First, we need to ensure that we have an adequate test and trace system that gives employers, workers and unions the confidence to return to the workplace. It is not working; getting it right is crucial to retaining jobs in the economy. Secondly, we need the Chancellor to bring forward a fiscal investment in people, as well as a fiscal investment in infrastructure, with proper redundancy support services attached to skills and training opportunities in every part of the country.

    British businesses are up for that challenge, from bringing forward R&D projects and decarbonising to pulling together in the national interest. This pandemic has shown the powerful partnership that can be formed ​between Government, businesses, workers and unions during times of crisis. We should try to hold on to that collective endeavour as we seek to recover and build the British economy, but that requires Ministers to step up to that challenge, to answer the questions that are being posed of them, and to take the necessary action to protect jobs and businesses across the whole of the country.

  • Caroline Nokes – 2020 Speech on Protecting Jobs

    Caroline Nokes – 2020 Speech on Protecting Jobs

    The speech made by Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2020.

    Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and that might mean some of the niceties go out of the window.

    My right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary is absolutely right to have identified the great long list of support that has gone to business, and I thank him for doing so because I now do not have to. I welcome the presence on the Front Bench of my hon. Friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. I would like to pay particular tribute to him for the help he has given me with individual constituency cases, particularly, I note, with one small business and Lloyds Banking Group. The hon. and learned Member for Edinburgh South West (Joanna Cherry) has just left—in time for me to make that point.

    I want to put on record some local perspective of where businesses in Romsey and Southampton North have had assistance: over 10,000 jobs protected by the furlough scheme; £9.5 million to self-employed people; more than £42 million of bounce back loans; and £17.5 million in business grants. Those are very significant figures. The borough council has worked hand in hand with the Government in reaching out to small businesses, making sure all those who are eligible applied and received assistance. Some 47,000 meals have been eaten via eat out to help out. Could my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary pass on to the Chancellor the particular thanks of the lady I met in the Cromwell Arms in Romsey who wanted to talk about the “lovely local lad” who is of course my right hon. Friend the Chancellor?

    Turning to the issue of ongoing support for local businesses, I was pleased to hear this week from Simon Parkes of Elumin8, a Romsey-based business making advanced lighting systems for the automotive industry. He is looking to recruit between three and five new employees—young employees—as soon as possible, and is keen to make the kickstart scheme work not just for his business, but for the benefit of such unemployed young people. Both he and the local council are working with the local enterprise partnership to bring together the minimum number of 30 needed so that more local businesses will be able to benefit. It is great to see the determination to make schemes work and get young people into real jobs who will then enable his business, even in difficult economic times, to thrive and grow.

    I commend the support that has gone to hospitality. We know it is a sector that employs many young people and, indeed, many women—an interest I have particularly. I pay tribute to the Four Horseshoes in Nursling, which is continuing the scheme on its own terms, and I know across the country many are doing the same. However, it would be remiss of me not to return to a sector that I have raised many times in this House and will continue to champion. The beauty industry employs over 370,000 people, over 90% of whom are women. They have stayed locked down longer than other industries, and in some parts of the country they remain locked down, so I welcome the grants that my right hon. Friend has mentioned.

    The green homes scheme is a great scheme and one that can provide energy efficiency and jobs, but please can we make it as wide as possible, so that companies ​such as Kelda Technology in my constituency, which makes showers, can also benefit from it, reducing energy costs through reducing water heating costs?

    Finally, on those in the events industry, my right hon Friend the Chancellor is working really hard to rebalance the economy, but these are small businesses which, if allowed to thrive, will in turn be paying tax in years to come, enabling us to rebalance the economy.