Mrs Kemi Badenoch
(North West Essex) (Con)
The Prime Minister can plant as many questions as he likes with his Back Benchers, but at the end of the day I am the one he has to face at the Dispatch Box. I welcome him back from his trip to Azerbaijan, where he has unilaterally made commitments that will make life more expensive for everyone back home. Speaking of making life—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. Somebody is suggesting reading; I think you will notice that the Prime Minister also reads, so please get your act together.
Mrs Badenoch
I can pre-prepare my questions, but the Prime Minister needs to answer from his mind. He has made life more expensive with his unilateral commitments but, speaking of making life more expensive, will the Prime Minister confirm that he will keep the cap on council tax?
The Prime Minister
The right hon. Lady talks of the trip to COP. I am very proud of the fact that we are restoring leadership on climate to the UK, because that will be measured in lower bills, energy independence and the jobs of the future. She may have missed this, but on Monday I was very pleased to announce a huge order into jobs in Hull for blades for offshore wind. If she is opposed to that sort of action, she should go to Hull and say so. On the question of councils, she knows what the arrangements are.
Mrs Badenoch
I think the House will have heard that the Prime Minister could neither confirm nor deny whether the cap on council tax was being raised, so I will ask him this: how much extra does he expect local authorities will have to raise to cover the social care funding gap created by the Chancellor’s Budget and increases in employers’ NI? He told the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) just now that he was covering social care. How much extra does he expect local authorities to raise?
The Prime Minister
This knockabout is all very well, but not actually listening to what I said three minutes ago is a bit of a fundamental failure of the Leader of the Opposition. I just said £600 million, and I repeat it: £600 million.
Mrs Badenoch
The Prime Minister has repeated that number because he has probably not listened to the Labour-run Local Government Association, which said that with no separate funding for the Chancellor’s Budget announcements, care providers would likely see increased costs, which will cost councils more. All of the £600 million in grant increase he is giving will not cover what is required for adult social care. It is clear that the Government have not thought through the impact of the Budget, and this is the problem with having a copy-and-paste Chancellor. Did they not realise that care homes, GP surgeries, children’s nurseries, hospices and even charities have to pay employers’ NI?
The Prime Minister
We have put more money into local authorities than the Conservatives did in 14 years. They left them in an absolutely catastrophic state. We have produced a Budget that does not increase tax on working people—nothing in the payslip—and is investing in our NHS, investing in our schools so every child can go as far as their talent will take them, and investing in the houses of the future. If she is against those things, she should say so.
Mrs Badenoch
I am not against any of those things—[Hon. Members: “Ah!”] Of course not; none of us is against any of those things. But the Prime Minister has confirmed that he does not know what is going on. He probably does not realise that on Monday the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government revealed that councils will need to find an additional £2.4 billion in council tax next year. That is a lot more than £600 million. I know he has been away, but did the Deputy Prime Minister, who runs that Department, make him aware of their £2.4 billion black hole?
The Prime Minister
Let me get this straight: the Leader of the Opposition does not want any of the measures in the Budget, but she wants all the benefits? The magic money tree is back after two weeks in office. The Conservatives have learned absolutely nothing. We have put forward a Budget that takes the difficult decisions, fixing the £22 billion black hole that they left and investing in the future of our country. They say that they want all that, but they do not know how they will pay for it—same old Tories.
Mrs Badenoch
Even the Prime Minister must admit that Labour fiddled the fiscal rules. The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that it does not recognise where the additional growth will come from. The fact is that the rise in employer national insurance will be a disaster for small businesses around the country. Let me tell you about Kelly, Mr Speaker. For over 20 years, Kelly has run an after-school club business supporting 500 children and families in her borough. In 2024, her national insurance cost was about £10,000; in April, that will rise to £26,000—that is a 150% increase in costs from the Budget alone. If Kelly’s small business goes under, what is the Prime Minister’s message to her and the 500 families it supports?
The Prime Minister
I would say this to Kelly: we inherited a very badly damaged economy and a £22 billion black hole, and we were not prepared to continue with the fiction. We stabilised—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. Ms Lopez, I am sure I can expect better from you as a Parliamentary Private Secretary.
The Prime Minister
I would say to Kelly that we are fixing the mess that we were left and are investing in the future of our country. I would also say to her that the Leader of the Opposition, in week two, wants all the benefits from the Budget but has no way of saying how she will pay for them—the same old mistake over and over again.
Mrs Badenoch
The Prime Minister has nothing to offer but platitudes. The fact is that the Government do not know what they are doing. Their ideological Budget was designed to milk the private sector and hope that nobody would notice. Now, his Cabinet Ministers are all queuing up for public sector bail-outs for his tax mess. If he is going to bail out the public sector, perhaps he can tell us this: does he think it appropriate to approve—as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has done—a four-day week for councils? That is not flexible working but part-time work for full-time pay.
The Prime Minister
Questions based on what we are actually doing are usually better than made-up fantasy questions. What did the Tories deliver in 14 years? Low growth, a stagnant economy, a disastrous mini-Budget and a £22 billion black hole. And now, the Leader of the Opposition wants to give me advice on running the economy. I do not want to be rude, but no, thank you very much.