MP COLUMN: Jon Pearce, MP for High Peak

Budget wipes the slate clean on Tory economic failure. Now it is on us to deliver the change Britain voted for.

I know from thousands of conversations on the doorstep just how much of a struggle life has been for people here in High Peak.

Politics is all about choices. The last government made too many bad choices and ordinary people suffered the consequences with mortgages and rents soaring and the cost-of-living spiralling.

At last week’s budget we had a number of choices to make of our own.

Our first choice was whether we continued with the bad decisions of the last government with more cuts to public services or to fix the financial mess we inherited and start investing in Britain’s future again.

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, chose the latter. The Budget wipes the slate clean on Conservative economic failure. It filled the black holes left by the Conservatives and started to deliver the investment our public services desperately need, with money to rebuild fifty schools a year, £1billion for SEND support and NHS funding to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointment per year.

Our second choice was how to fund the changes our economy and public services required. At the election we promised working people that they would not face higher taxes in their payslip, with no increase in National Insurance, Income Tax, or VAT. And the Budget delivered on that promise.

By choosing to protect working people that meant asking the wealthiest and businesses to pay their fair share. In doing so we have protected small businesses taking thousands out of paying any National Insurance.

After making representations to the Chancellor on behalf of our small family farmers, I was pleased to see that they should not be materially affected by changes to inheritance tax laws. This means that only the largest, wealthiest estates are being asked to contribute more towards things like the largest ever amount directed at sustainable food production and nature recovery in Britain’s history that was also announced at the Budget.

Those who are being asked to contribute more over the coming years have a right to know their funds are being well used. We must reform our public services and cut down on waste. For example, our reforms will transform the NHS from analogue to digital, focus on prevention and shift care from hospital to community.

The Budget wiped the slate clean on Tory economic failure. Now it is on us to deliver the change Britain voted for.