Deirdre Costigan

It is fair to say that my constituents in Ealing Southall will not all have been glued to the telly last Wednesday to watch the Chancellor’s speech. Instead, due to wars abroad, many of them will have been trying their best to feed hungry kids, who were off for half term, or stressing about whether to turn the heating on or not. After years of austerity, my constituents have spent more than a decade too worried about their daily lives to be able to pay much attention to Budget day, and all the talk of GDP, OBR and CPI does not seem to have any impact on their lives. This Budget changes that. By cutting energy bills and giving 34,300 households in my constituency a £100 council tax rebate, this Budget recognises the families in Ealing Southall worried about getting through this winter and the next. By reducing tariffs on everyday items, this Budget recognises the hard choices that mums in Ealing Southall have to make every day. By permanently raising the tax-free mileage rate to 55p, this Budget recognises the many nurses, plumbers and care workers in Ealing Southall who use their car for work. By allowing carers to work more hours without losing their entire benefits, this Budget recognises the situation of many carers in Ealing Southall. The Leader of the Opposition dismisses those changes, but in doing so she simply shows how out of touch she is with the reality of working people’s lives. Small changes such as those matter. As well as giving people breathing space, this Budget takes the big decisions needed to finally undo the damage of 14 years of the Conservatives. Investing in skills and apprenticeships so that my constituents can get better-paid jobs is the best way to protect them from the uncertainties of foreign wars and global crises. This Budget’s £15 million investment to restore the union learning fund is one example of that. The Leader of the Opposition dismissed the union learning fund as a “random new scheme employers don’t want”, but in fact it is a brilliant old scheme that 78% of employers said they were hugely supportive of until the Tories got rid of it. Yet again, the Leader of the Opposition shows how out of touch she is. The new union learning fund will address the challenges of today and help to reskill the workforce to take on jobs in AI and advanced manufacturing. It will help the Somali Uber drivers in my constituency to get help from their union, the GMB, when they fear losing their jobs to driverless cars. This Budget also invests in apprentices such as Jack and Aidan, who I met when I visited West London College earlier this year. They can see buildings being built outside their window, and the new apprenticeship brokering scheme will help them to work on those sites. Although they might not have been glued to the telly last week, when the kids had all been fed, the elderly parents had been looked after and the working day was done, people in Ealing Southall switched on their telly and their heating, and they saw a Government who are giving them not just the breathing space they need to make their lives a little easier right now, but the tools they need to face the future with confidence.