Iqbal Mohamed

I will come to that in the short time I have remaining. It is not true that we do not have enough money to fix these problems. If the Chancellor was serious about rebuilding Britain, she would adopt straightforward, fairer tax reforms. As many Members across have said, we could raise tens of billions of pounds by closing loopholes that allow foreign multinationals to shift profits offshore and avoid paying UK corporation tax while onshoring expenses and taking advantage of subsidies and tax relief. We could implement the digital services tax that was originally promised, ensuring that big tech finally pays its fair share of its record profits. We could end the preferential treatment of income from wealth over income from work by taxing capital gains at closer parity with earnings. We could introduce a genuine windfall tax on excessive profits, particularly in energy, finance and banking, and reform tax reliefs that disproportionately benefit the wealthy, and instead redirect revenue to public services. These are not radical ideas; they are basic principles of fiscal fairness. The Budget is a moral statement, and today’s Budget shows us a Government who still choose war over welfare, profits over people, and short-term headlines over long-term stability. To borrow a phrase, they are choosing the few over the many.