I know that Members across the House will want to extend our thanks to President Biden for his steadfast leadership, and to warmly congratulate President-elect Trump ahead of his inauguration. In my conversation with President-elect Trump, we have underlined our shared commitment to the special relationship in the years to come.
This week, we launched our AI opportunities action plan, which, as part of our plan for change, will ensure that we seize the opportunities of AI to benefit working people. This will boost productivity, transform public services and deliver £39 billion of investment and more than 13,000 jobs.
This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.
With almost 4.5 million entries and exits over the past year, Maidenhead train station is a busy transport hub, but with crowded gatelines, flooded underpasses and a drop-off facility that is not fit for purpose, the station needs major upgrades to give Maidenhead commuters what they deserve. Does the Prime Minister understand what Maidenhead residents face at the station, and will he commit his Government to fixing these issues in this Parliament?
I thank the hon. Member for his question. I am pleased that his constituents are benefiting from upgrades at the station, including, I think, new lifts to make the station fully accessible. The issues that he raises are faced by passengers right across the country. That is why we are bringing rail services back into public ownership, setting up Great British Railways, and making ticketing simpler and fairer to ensure a better service for all passengers, including those in his constituency.
Q4. I recently visited MidKent college, which serves my constituency of Gillingham and Rainham. It teaches valuable construction skills to young people, but I have been informed that it faces significant challenges in recruiting teachers to deliver those courses. Does the Prime Minister agree that proper skills training and having the teachers necessary to deliver it is absolutely vital to growing our economy and building the homes that we need for the future? Will he agree to set up a meeting with the relevant Minister to discuss the recruitment challenges that some colleges face?
Skilling up the next generation is vital to kick-start economic growth. Our plan for change will rebuild Britain by delivering 1.5 million new homes. That is why we have established Skills England, and are reforming our planning system and training the workforce. I will ensure that my hon. Friend gets the meeting that she wants with the relevant Minister.
On Friday, while borrowing costs hit levels not seen since Labour was last in government, I met business owners and their employees in Chesterfield. One of them told me that his business will not exist in four years’ time because of this Government’s policies. It might not even exist next year. The Prime Minister may try to blame his inheritance, or blame global factors, but why should anyone trust a word he says over what businesses are saying again and again—that his Budget means fewer jobs, lower growth and higher borrowing costs?
As the Leader of the Opposition knows, the global economy is experiencing volatility and higher borrowing costs. That is why it was vital that we took the tough and right decisions in the Budget to get our finances back in order. We had to deal with the £22 billion black hole that the Conservatives left. We made difficult cuts and raised taxes to invest in health, public services and housing—vital to stability, and vital to growth. We have an iron-clad commitment to our fiscal rules, and she will no doubt welcome the inflation figures this morning.
Contrast that with the Conservatives. They were not brave enough in government to take those difficult decisions. They have opposed all our measures to stabilise the economy and promote growth. They are back to the magic money tree. The Leader of the Opposition wants all the benefits of the Budget but cannot say how she would pay for them. They have not changed; they are still economic vandals and fantasists. Imagine where we would be if they were still in charge.
Just today, the British Retail Consortium has said that two thirds of businesses will have to raise prices to cope with the Prime Minister’s tax hike. His Chancellor ignored all the warnings and ploughed ahead with an unprecedented borrowing spree, leaving all of us more vulnerable. Now we have businesses saying that they will raise prices to cover his jobs tax. We have an energy policy that will drive up bills, and all the while we are spending more day to day on debt interest than we do on schools and universities. The Prime Minister refused to repeat his Chancellor’s promise that she would not “come back for more”. Will he now rule out any new tax rises this year?
We took the right and difficult decisions in the Budget—decisions that the Conservatives did not have the courage to take, which left us in the mess in the first place. When it comes to tax, the Leader of the Opposition knows very well the limits of what I can say from this Dispatch Box, but we have an iron-clad commitment to our fiscal rules. We cannot just tax our way out of the problems that they left us, which is why we have put in place tough—[Interruption.] They were howling at the spending decisions. They would not take them, but we will stick to those spending decisions. Our focus is absolutely on growth, but their record—[Interruption.] They flatlined the economy. Their record is a mini-Budget that crashed the economy, the worst cost of living crisis in living memory, and leaving a £22 billion black hole. I am not taking lessons from them on the economy.
The Prime Minister knows very well that the Office for Budget Responsibility found no such black hole. He talks about a mini-Budget three years ago. Borrowing costs last week were at a 27-year high for 30-year gilts. The Chancellor is apparently promising to be ruthless in reducing spending. Let me suggest something that he should cut. There is no way that we should be giving up British territory in Chagos. He is rushing a deal that will be disastrous and that will land taxpayers with a multibillion-pound bill. Why does the Prime Minister think that British people should pay to surrender something that is already ours?
We inherited a situation where the long-term operation of a vital military base was under threat because of legal challenges. The negotiations were started under the last Government. The then Foreign Secretary came to this House to say why he was starting negotiations and what he wanted to achieve. He said that the aim was to
“ensure the continued effective operation”—[Official Report, 13 December 2022; Vol. 724, c. 865.]
of the base. That is precisely what this deal has delivered.
There is no one the Prime Minister can blame for this dud deal except himself. At the Budget, Labour was congratulating itself for having the first female Chancellor, instead of ensuring that the country had someone actually qualified to do the job. [Interruption.]
The Prime Minister claims he has full confidence in the Chancellor, but the markets clearly do not. Yesterday, the Chancellor repeated her promise to have “just one Budget per year” to provide businesses with certainty. The talk in the City is that she cannot meet her fiscal rules, and that there will need to be an emergency Budget. Does the Prime Minister stand by the Chancellor’s commitment that there will be only one Budget this year?
The Leader of the Opposition will be pleased to know that the Chancellor will be in place for many, many years to come. She will outstrip them. If we all thought that politics was about cheap points, I could criticise their Chancellors, but I do not have enough time to go through all the Chancellors they had. We have one Budget; that is what we are committed to. We have strong fiscal rules, and we will stick to them, unlike the Conservatives.
At a time of turmoil in the markets, the Prime Minister was distracted by the crisis around the former City Minister, the hon. Member for Hampstead and Highgate (Tulip Siddiq). What does it tell us about his judgment that yesterday he said he was saddened that his close friend had resigned? This was an anti-corruption Minister under criminal investigation for corruption. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize winner advising Bangladesh, said that London properties gifted to the former City Minister may be the proceeds of robbery. Will the Prime Minister offer Bangladesh the full support of our National Crime Agency in ensuring that any properties bought with stolen funds are properly investigated?