Stephen Morgan MP has responded to the Budget today, slamming the Government for its continued failure to deliver higher growth and higher wages for Portsmouth people despite 21 promises over the last decade to do so.
Labour analysis has revealed that every single Tory Budget and fiscal statement for the last decade has promised action to deliver higher wages, higher skills, or higher growth.
Mr Sunak’s recession shows that his promise to grow the economy is in tatters and the economy is now smaller than when the prime minister entered 10 Downing Street in 2022.
The Portsmouth MP has said this Budget should be the final chapter of 14 years of economic failure under the Conservatives that has left Portsmouth and Britain worse off with higher bills and costs of living.
Despite the Chancellor’s commitments to reducing National Insurance by 2p, in the context of frozen tax thresholds and other planned tax rises in the years ahead in areas such as stamp duty land tax, the tax burden is still on track to exceed all-time highs.
The national insurance cut announced in November has also been wiped out by the rise in council tax since the general election.
Mr Morgan further said that the Chancellor’s announcement on the NHS comes too little too late, and promises of productivity gains through digital transformation are not a quick fix for those in Portsmouth struggling with the basics such as getting a GP or dentist appointment.
If the Tories had abolished non-dom tax status when Labour first suggested it in 2015, they could have paid for an extra 62,000 nurses, or 36,000 extra doctors for the NHS, every single year since, benefitting Portsmouth.
Millions of patients could have been treated earlier, off NHS waiting lists, and free to live their lives to the full.
Commenting, Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan said:
”Despite the promises by successive Chancellors, Portsmouth is worse off than 2010 – with higher taxes, lower wages and higher costs of living.
“Portsmouth people are right not to take this Government at its word. Our local NHS is in crisis, our city is crying out for investment, and people are struggling to make ends meet.
“Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, the Labour Party has changed and is now the party of economic responsibility. Only Labour has a long-term plan to deliver more jobs, more investment and to make working people in Portsmouth better off.”
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves MP said:
“The Conservatives promised to fix the nation’s roof, but instead they have smashed the windows, kicked the door in and are now burning the house down.
“Taxes are rising, prices are still going up in the shops and we have been hit by recession. Nothing the Chancellor says or does can undo the economic vandalism of the Conservatives over the past decade.
“The country needs change, not another failed Budget or the risk of five more years of Conservative chaos.”
