Blair McDougall

It has been a dreadful decade for businesses, and for small businesses in particular. As I said at the beginning, our job is to make it easier to invest and to ensure that we are cutting red tape and increasing access to finance. I will talk about that in a moment. In the Budget, we took action to give the businesses that the right hon. Member for Tatton (Esther McVey) is concerned about and employers some breathing space. We continue to work on the long-term changes that are necessary to create good jobs and growth in every part of our country. As a result of that work, employment is up this year—it is higher than previously forecast in March—and, in fact, the UK has the third highest employment rate in the G7. Meanwhile, business investment—so often embarrassing under the previous Government—relative to the size of the economy remains at its highest level for a decade. Of course, as Members have said, there are global headwinds from the conflict in the middle east. [Hon. Members: “Ah!”] Conservative Members say “Ah”, and they do not like to be reminded of that, because they were calling for us to take part in that conflict. People and employers are seeing the impact of that conflict in their bills. We know that there is more to do, but this is a country that is turning a corner. With that, I turn to the points raised throughout the debate, starting with national insurance, which was raised by several hon. Members. The facts are these. Employer national insurance contributions are forecast to raise about £150 billion in 2026-27. That is a significant contribution to the funding of our public services. Why is that needed? Because we cannot have a strong NHS or strong public services without investing in them, investing in our country and rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure we inherited after 14 years of austerity.