Sammy Wilson

Of course, any of the big diesel and petrol users would have benefited from greater support from the Government. On the big challenges that the Government are facing, and which they admit they are facing, there has been very little in this Budget. First, if we are going to get out of many of our economic difficulties, the main issue is to have economic growth. While much has been made today of the micro policies that will affect businesses and encourage entrepreneurs, the fact of the matter is that we are stagnating because we are taxing the life out of businesses. We have the highest tax burden ever, and businesses tell us all the time that the tax on employment stops them recruiting and that the tax on profits stops them investing. If we are going to have economic growth, we must address the issue of the overall burden of taxation, but that has been studiously avoided in this Budget. I am thinking of the farming industry in Northern Ireland. Only yesterday, I met the Ulster Farmers’ Union, which told me that 90% of farmers have now stopped investment plans because of the inheritance tax fears, and I suppose that is true in many other places. With taxation halting people’s investment decisions, that will of course have an impact on economic growth. Secondly, we have to reduce the debt, yet the Chancellor has told us today that we will actually be borrowing more year on year over the time of this Budget. If we are borrowing more, we are adding to the debt, and if we are adding to the debt, we are adding to the interest we pay on that debt. The Chancellor has even accepted today that £14 billion extra will be required this year just to pay for the increase in the interest we have to pay on the debt. As we continue to borrow, we are not going to get that debt down, and as we do not get that down, we have to tax to pay the interest on it. Again, that has an impact on economic growth, and there does not appear to be a willingness to address it.