Nadia Whittome
MP for Nottingham East · Labour · United Kingdom
“My hon. Friend is making an incredibly emotional speech. I know, from the Nottingham maternity review, the harm and hurt that is caused when people with knowledge and involvement in institutional failures are allowed to dodge accountability and scrutiny.”
“There is little evidence that the Bill will do what it claims and fix the most serious issues in our asylum system. In fact, experts say that it will divert focus and resources to a system that is unfair, unsafe and unworkable.”
“The Government could have brought forward a Bill containing evidence-based policies that would fix our broken asylum system—for example, a not-for-profit asylum accommodation system to improve living conditions and integration, genuinely safe routes that are not severely restricted and heavily capped, and fast tracking of obviously well-f…”
“That undermines the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers, which are key cornerstones of our democracy. The Law Society says that it risks “more wrong decisions, more court challenges, higher costs and longer uncertainty.” Poor Home Office decision making drives the appeals backlog.”
“It is great to hear my right hon. Friend supporting schemes like Homes for Ukraine. The reason we do not see Ukrainians crossing the channel on small boats is because, rightly, we have a safe and legal route.”
“The continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied west bank and East Jerusalem is having a profound impact on Palestinian communities, where military violence and attacks by extremist idealogues are spiralling.”
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Every one of 551 lines we hold for Nadia Whittome, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 8 of 12.
“This refusal to act, however, comes as no surprise when the Conservative party has taken almost £1.5 million from the energy industry under this Prime Minister. In the short term, the proposed tax will lessen the burden on families; in the longer term, we desperately need to reduce our reliance on gas, seriously invest in renewables, and create a national programme to insulate homes. We must also acknowledge that the privatisation of our energy system has failed. Competition has not driven down bills; in fact, gas bills have risen by 50% since 1996, and private companies have failed to switch to the sustainable energy sources that we need in order to tackle the climate crisis.”
“The think-tank Common Wealth reports that Shell and BP alone have paid £147 billion to their shareholders since 2010, which is more than seven times the £20 billion that it would take to keep household energy bills at their current level. Those profits have only become more obscene as the current energy crisis has worsened. At the end of last year Bernard Looney, the chief executive of BP, described the crisis as a “cash machine” for his company. That cash is coming from my constituents’ pockets, and those of people who are struggling to pay their bills. There is simply no argument when it comes to whether these companies can afford a windfall tax. It is my constituents who cannot afford the Government’s inaction.”
“It is clear to anyone living in this country that we are experiencing a cost of living crisis. As food and energy prices are spiking, my constituents tell me that they are anxious and outraged at ever larger bills. The Resolution Foundation estimates that in April, when changes to the energy price cap are introduced, those bills will soar by 50%. That will lead to more than one in four households spending at least 10% of their income on energy. With housing costs already taking up a significant proportion of household spending and food bills increasing, more and more people will be forced to choose between heating and eating while this Government dawdle. I strongly support Labour’s proposal to introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas. While my constituents worry about their bills, North sea oil companies have been reaping criminal profits.”
“Can the Prime Minister explain how changing the civil service hierarchy would have prevented him from breaching the covid regulations, as he has admitted in this House? When will he take responsibility for his own actions and stop hiding behind other people? My constituents do not want another Government Department; they want him to resign.”
“I thank the hon. Member and the right hon. Member for Ashford (Damian Green) for tabling this important amendment. Does the hon. Member agree that, while the amendment is welcome and it would be an improvement on the current situation, it would still mean that young people born after 1997 were relying on the BNO status of their parents, and that that would disproportionately impact poorer Hongkongers and people whose families moved after 1997?”
“MaPS is removing some of the last genuine support my constituents have access to—the people they turn to when bailiffs are at the door; the people who will hold their hands in times of extreme personal difficulty and crisis. The Government must remember that savings made through cuts to community debt advice will have knock-on impacts on other public services, such as the benefits system, mental health provision and homelessness services. I urge the Minister to pause this contract. He has heard today about the catastrophic impact these changes will have on people’s lives—on my constituents and on his. Go back to the drawing board and work with MPs across the House to implement the kind of debt advice system that would best serve our communities.”
“Who will support them if community debt advice is cut? Disabled people, elderly people, those who require translation or who lack regular access to a phone or the internet due to homelessness or poverty—those people will suffer. Many of them are among the most marginalised and vulnerable in society. Recently, St Ann’s debt helpline inbox received 455 emails in one week. That is the worst they have ever seen. These changes and cuts would be wrong at any time, but to implement them now—after a pandemic has wreaked havoc on people’s lives, as families have £20 a week cut from their universal credit payments, as national insurance contributions rise, and as bills and food prices soar—is simply inhumane. The debt crisis will only grow.”
“There are a number of major problems with that change, but I will outline just two. First, removing the local face-to-face element will take away an entire support system from people. When people come through the door at St Ann’s for debt advice, they can also get support with a whole range of other issues tailored for them locally—they can leave with a food parcel or a clothing parcel—which cannot be replaced on the internet or over the phone. Secondly, digital and phone advice is simply not appropriate for some of my constituents. According to frontline debt advisers working on webchat, about 50% of all clients either disengage or need to be directed to face-to-face services to ultimately have their problems resolved. Can the Minister say what will happen to people whose problems cannot be solved by digital and phone-based services?”
“Its debt advisers help to set up manageable payment plans, help people to complete financial statements and apply for certain grants, carry out benefits checks, and provide advice on budgeting decisions. More than that, from employment advice to food, furniture and clothing, the advice centre takes a holistic approach to supporting individuals. It is a one-stop shop for people facing poverty. St Ann’s has three debt advisers funded through a MaPS contract. However, under the new proposals, it will lose all of them and, because MaPS has the monopoly on debt advice, it is unlikely to get support from anywhere else. MaPS argues that, while community-based face-to-face services are being cut, more money is being put into a centralised digital and telephone-based system.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Bardell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Emma Hardy) for securing the debate and speaking so passionately about the impact on her constituents, and indeed all our constituents. In the last 13 years, families in Nottingham East have faced blow after blow to their finances. People lost jobs and savings in the 2008 financial crash, more than a decade of austerity has seen benefit payments brutally cut and, in the pandemic, incomes have plummeted. Throughout all of that, our community has been able to rely on St Ann’s Advice Centre, which has been a lifeline to so many people in Nottingham.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and for securing this important debate. Does he agree that the Prime Minister likening Muslim women to letterboxes and bank robbers directly fuels Islamophobia—I have seen it myself, as a former hate crime worker—and that apologising for offence caused is not good enough? The Prime Minister must apologise for what he said and, more importantly, engage with the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims and take some real action, starting with adopting the definition for Islamophobia.”
“We must decide: do we want to be remembered for what we did or for what we failed to do? Young people’s futures depend on us. We must not let them down. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Nadia Whittome, Philip Dunne, Robert Halfon, Caroline Lucas, Layla Moran, Mhairi Black, Yvette Cooper, Rebecca Long Bailey, Zarah Sultana, Darren Jones, Clive Lewis and Jeremy Corbyn present the Bill. Nadia Whittome accordingly presented the Bill. Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 28 January 2022, and to be printed (Bill 197).”
“I pay particular thanks to the right hon. Member for Ludlow (Philip Dunne) for his continued leadership on skills and training as part of a just transition to a greener economy, as well as for his personal kindness and support for this campaign. It is important to be honest about the climate and ecological emergency, but it is also important to remember how much we still have to fight for. Every ray of hope and every inch of progress at COP26 was won through relentless pressure from activists and campaigners, especially those on the frontlines of the crisis. Change has always happened this way, and always will. The next generation are calling on us to take these steps, to secure their future. I want us to listen to them and act for them. Some of us may not be around to see the full results of our actions, but our legacy will live on.”
“I hope that the Government will recognise the Bill as a natural continuation of their announcement at COP26. I hope it will encourage them to go further—to legislate to make climate change part of the core content of all subjects, to support teachers to deliver climate education and to decarbonise the education sector much faster. Not only young people but our entire economy stands to benefit. Our green jobs and recovery plans lag far behind those of most G7 countries. The availability of the right skills and a keen interest in sustainability will pave the way to a productive green transformation and decent job creation. I am delighted and grateful that the Bill includes among its sponsors the Chairs of the Environmental Audit Committee, the Select Committee on Education, and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.”
“Pandemics, such as the one that has turned our world upside-down for the past two years, will become more frequent as loss of habitat forces animals to migrate and come into contact with other animals or people. Climate education will help young people to understand the world around them and provide access to nature and opportunities for children to engage with our natural world. Some 57% of child and adolescent psychiatrists in England see patients who are distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment. The Bill would provide support for students to deal with eco and climate anxiety, which climate education will also mitigate, as it will empower students to understand what actions they can take to help tackle climate change and the role that they will play in the future.”
“It would be intertwined with every subject, a golden thread that runs through a young person’s schooling, just as the climate crisis and our actions to tackle it run through every aspect of our lives. Whether those young people grow up to be a builder or a banker, a carer or a caterer, the climate crisis will affect everyone. We need to train the next generation of plumbers to install low-carbon heat pumps, and teach the next generation of chefs about sustainable diets and sustainable food production. This Bill would ensure that climate change is given the emphasis in our education system that it deserves. The climate and ecological crisis impacts everything around us.”
“That is a key first step and a vital recognition of the importance of climate education, but a voluntary scheme such as the one announced can achieve only so much, and unfortunately the fine print of the announcement was such that it amounts to little more than teachers being sent PowerPoint presentations. While teaching about the climate remains voluntary, many young people will continue to miss out. Teachers must also be supported to deliver climate education, given that 70% of teachers feel that they have not received adequate training to educate young people about climate change. This Climate Education Bill would make climate education mandatory, embedding it across the national curriculum and ensuring that all teachers receive training.”
“If we want to know whether something was a success, we need to start by asking the people who have the most to lose—people such as 15-year-old Safia Hasan, a climate activist from Chad, who said: “I’m hugely disappointed and hugely let down by COP. Coming from Chad, millions of my people are suffering but nobody is listening to our cries, our tears. It’s our planet, and it’s time to stop messing about with our future.” Notwithstanding the disappointing outcomes on climate finance, decarbonising of the energy sector and just transition initiatives, however, I welcome the Government announcement at COP26 that they will take action to promote greater teaching of climate change in the curriculum.”
“In 2018, one survey found that 42% of pupils felt that they had learned a little, hardly anything or nothing about the environment at school, and 68% said that they would like to know more. This Bill exists only because of the hard work of young people. School students from Teach the Future, who have joined us today in the Public Gallery, have spent the past two years campaigning relentlessly to be taught the truth about the climate crisis and to be equipped with the skills to tackle it. Their campaign has put this issue on the agenda; it now falls to us to put it into law. The Bill comes in the same month that the UK hosted the COP26.”
“The world and the economy that they inherit will feel very different from those of today. If our education system is not preparing young people to mitigate and deal with the impacts of climate change, it is failing them. If it is not teaching them the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a net zero society, it is failing them. If young people are not being taught to understand the impact of human interaction with the natural world and the need to maintain biodiversity and cut our carbon emissions, it is failing them and our planet. This Bill aims to put that right and to prepare young people for the future, and this Bill is what young people are demanding.”
“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require matters relating to climate change and sustainability to be integrated throughout the curriculum in primary and secondary schools and included in vocational training courses; and for connected purposes. Madam Deputy Speaker, 2050 is the year that the world needs to reach net zero. This will require fundamental changes to every sector of our economy unprecedented in their overall scale. For some, 2050 might feel like it is a long way away. In the next 30 years, Governments will come and go and many Members of this House will retire, but for my generation and for those who are still in school—young people who have their whole future ahead of them—2050 will be the middle of their working lives. A child who started primary school this September will not even be 35.”
“The UK’s leadership of COP26 was undermined by climate hypocrisy at home, but we still have the COP presidency and a change of policy now could still influence others. In that spirit, will the Government stop drilling in the Cambo oilfield, scrap plans for a new coalmine in Cumbria and cancel the tax cuts on domestic flights—yes or no?”
“Shell and BP paid zero tax on North sea oil in the last three years, and the Government have backed them with tax breaks and subsidies worth billions. Instead of bankrolling polluters, we should invest those billions in a green new deal. The Budget gives banks a £4 billion tax break while hiking taxes for working people to the highest level in 70 years. The Budget also keeps the universal credit cut. Even with the changes to the taper rate, about 75% of the 4.4 million households on universal credit, including 14,250 in Nottingham East, will still be worse off. After more than a decade of austerity, the Budget fails to restore spending on public services to the level that we need and does not deliver the “new age of optimism” that the Chancellor promised. The glass is not half full.”
“Public sector workers cannot continue with more years of below-inflation pay increases, which are, in real terms, pay cuts. The Chancellor must guarantee a proper pay rise for those workers and, indeed, for all workers, whether they are care workers, shop workers or cleaners—the people who got us through the pandemic. Days before COP26, the Budget could have announced an ambitious spending plan for a just transition to a low-carbon economy, creating thousands of jobs in the process. Instead, the Chancellor cut taxes on domestic flights and pledged just £7.5 billion of new money for climate and nature, which leaves a £55.4 billion gap in the investment we need to hit our net zero and nature targets.”
“In all but a few Departments, increases in his spending review only partially reverse cuts made since 2010. The people of Nottingham now receive more than £100 million less each year to fund local services. Thanks to Government cuts to local authorities, our city’s youth services have been cut by over 90%. When will Nottingham get the money we need to truly level up? Will the Chancellor answer honestly on why his seat, among the most affluent in the country, has been prioritised in the levelling-up fund, while 38% of children in Nottingham East are living in poverty? The Chancellor may have ended the public sector pay freeze, but there is no certainty that wages will rise above inflation or even with inflation. The tax hikes he is implementing and the price rises he is failing to control mean that families face a cost of living crisis.”
“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Bob Seely). I echo his support for comments from those on the Opposition Benches condemning private ownership of our public services. For my generation, this Budget offers little hope. It fails to address the climate emergency, the effects of which we must endure; it fails to tackle the poverty pay that means wages do not pay the bills; and it fails to get a grip on the housing crisis, consigning people of my generation to live in their childhood bedrooms or fork out half of their income in rent. We are a generation that has grown up under austerity. Our entire teenage and adult lives have been lived in its shadow. The Chancellor talks about restoring spending, but the cuts continue to bite.”
“Climate change would be a thread woven into every part of our education system, just as it impacts every part of our lives.”
“As it stands, climate change barely features on the national curriculum. It is confined to small parts of science GCSE, or optional subjects such as horticulture and environmental science, which few institutions have the financial capacity to host. Due to academisation of our education system, many schools are also not required to teach climate change directly. We need to put climate change at the heart of education. In practice, this would mean that properly taught climate change education would be integrated into subject areas across the curriculum—not just physics, chemistry and geography, but economics, history, arts and food technology. It would be integrated into vocational training courses as well, with plumbing courses teaching how to install low-carbon heating systems and catering colleges covering sustainable diets.”
“The climate crisis is already here, and we must be prepared to adapt and mitigate its effects in our changing world. A child who started primary school last month will not yet have turned 35 in 2050—the year in which the Government intend to reach net zero carbon emissions—but our current education system does not acknowledge how different our society will be by then, and it will not equip that child with the tools they will need to live and work in it. As Greta Thunberg said when people questioned why she was not at school and was instead striking for the climate, “Why should I be studying for a future that soon may be no more”? If our education system is not preparing and empowering young people to help prevent climate change and deal with its consequences, it is failing them.”
“It requires that we build an economy based on clean energy, creating secure, sustainable jobs through investment in green industry, transitioning away from sectors with high emissions, and restoring our natural world. It requires a public who are informed and knowledgeable about the climate, and a shift in emphasis when it comes to the skills that are valued and taught in our society. Does the Minister agree that teaching students knowledge and practical skills relating to climate change and green technology is a key component in transitioning to a low-carbon society? Even if the world is on track to limit the overall rise in temperature to 1.5°—that is a big if—there will still be repercussions for us environmentally, socially and economically.”
“I beg to move, That this House has considered the inclusion of sustainability and climate change in the national curriculum. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Ghani. I thank Mr Speaker for granting this debate, and I welcome the Minister to his place. I also thank colleagues for being present, including those who have long been staunch advocates on the issue of climate and ecology, and particularly the chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, the right hon. Member for Ludlow (Philip Dunne). To stop runaway climate change, we have to reduce our emissions by half every decade. The world needs to reach net zero by 2050. That requires sustained political pressure on our leaders and huge changes to every part of our economy—changes that the Climate Change Committee has described as “unprecedented in their overall scale”.”
“Does the Minister agree that the very least older generations can do is equip young people with the skills they need to clean up the mess that was not of their making? Will the Minister find time to meet with me and the school students here today to discuss the campaign and how we can progress it through Government? Next week we will host world leaders at COP26. This is our last and best chance of stopping runaway climate change. I want us to show the world that we are serious, that we are listening to young people’s calls, and that we are not just inspired by them but inspired to act.”
“They have been driving this debate forward and are of the generation—my generation—that forced our Parliament to declare a climate and ecological emergency almost two and a half years ago. These young people are still in school, too young to vote or stand for elections, but they have led the way in driving the climate crisis up the political agenda. They have shown this House how change is won. As Parliament’s youngest MP, I feel pride in being part of their generation and a particular responsibility to represent them, but they need representation from the whole House. For decades, huge corporations have polluted our planet with impunity, and the Governments of previous generations have let them off far too lightly. That must end. My generation, young people, and those yet to be born will have to deal with and live with the consequences.”
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention and wholeheartedly agree with his comments. I again thank him for all the work he has done as the Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee in progressing not just this issue but the need for green jobs across society and in all our communities. The UN is championing the need for climate education in the national curriculum. Also firmly on board are all the major teaching unions, but at the forefront of this campaign is the youth climate strike movement, some members of which are here today. They have made climate education a clear key demand of their campaign. I thank Scarlett, Yasmin, Charlie, Tess and Stella who have joined us from Teach the Future.”
“Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) and the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) also spoke about access to nature, which is very important to me. As an MP representing an inner-city seat, I want children in inner-city Nottingham, Bristol, London, Manchester and Sheffield to have the same opportunities as children in St Ives. I also thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for highlighting why this touches on the issue of educational inequality. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the inclusion of sustainability and climate change in the national curriculum.”
“Friend the Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Tulip Siddiq), for her supportive comments and the work she is doing on embedding climate education in everything we do, and to my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake). It is important that this question forms part of lifelong learning; the debate has highlighted that, while we need to think about the generations that come after us and children in school now, many Members of this House also missed out on the opportunity for climate education. My hon. Friends the Members for Norwich South (Clive Lewis) and for Salford and Eccles (Rebecca Long Bailey) spoke about the need to decarbonise the education sector and to create jobs for the future, and why those green jobs must be accompanied by climate education so that people can do them. The right hon.”
“—and young people here today. I thank him for that assurance. Colleagues from across the House have spoken passionately and knowledgeably about the need for climate education, and I think it is safe to say that there is consensus in this Chamber on the need for young people to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to provide the solutions to climate change. Right hon. and hon. Members have spoken about their own children and grandchildren, about constituents and school visits, and it is clear that this is a personal issue for many. The hon. Member for St Ives (Derek Thomas) spoke about climate justice, and both he and the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) spoke about the need to reduce climate anxiety and the important role that climate education can play in that. I pay tribute to my Front-Bench colleague, my hon.”
“Members have said, that must be in grants, not loans. We need international financial institutions to step up and work towards unleashing the trillions in private and public sector finance required to secure global net zero.”
“Will the Government support the green new deal Bill, which would transform our society’s infrastructure at the scale and pace demanded by the science and fix our rigged economic model, which fails the majority of people as well as our planet? Will they support the climate and ecological emergency Bill, which would substantially strengthen our environmental commitments and force the UK to take responsibility for the carbon emissions that it generates, not only within our borders but abroad? Those least responsible for bringing about the climate emergency will suffer its worst consequences while Governments allow transnational polluters to get away with impunity. Developed countries must make good on their promise to mobilise at least $100 billion in climate finance per year; as other hon.”
“What I have described is the worst-case scenario spelled out by two of the architects of the Paris agreement. COP26 is our last chance to get our house in order so that we can reach net zero and limit the global temperature rise to 1°C. The IPCC’s special report is clear that we need “rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, land…infrastructure …and industrial systems”. That means stopping investment in fossil fuels and it means a just transition to 100% renewable energy, instead of investing in 16 new North sea oil and gas projects. Frankly, it means the Government abandoning their ideology and obsession with the free market; putting mass investment on a post-war scale into millions of green jobs that are well-paid and unionised; and building the homes we need.”
“I thank the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) for securing this debate. Mr Deputy Speaker, I want you to imagine the world in 2050. If our emissions plateau and we do not reduce them any further, our lives will feel very different. In many places in the world, the air will be clogged with pollution. Respiratory problems will be more widespread. Coastal cities will continue to suffer ever more destructive flooding in which many people will die, either from the flooding itself or from waterborne diseases. Vast regions will be affected by drought, some areas will even be deserts and 2 billion people in the hottest parts of the world will regularly experience temperatures of more than 60°C. There will also be a refugee crisis on an unimaginable scale as people are forced to leave their homes and seek safety in other places.”
“My condolences to the Prime Minister on the sad loss of his mother. I was privileged to be able to take the time off work that I needed to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder, but that should be a right for everyone, not a privilege. Far too many people cannot take the time off that they need because, by the former Health Secretary’s own admission, statutory sick pay at £95 a week is not enough to live on. This is a simple question—yes or no? Will the Prime Minister today commit to full sick pay at a real living wage, not the Government’s current age-restricted minimum wage?”
“I do not want to hear about incentives to get people into work—the Conservative party knows full well that the cut hits people who are in work, because work does not pay. Cancel the cuts, introduce a real living wage and scrap the benefit cap.”
“It is not the Tory party’s billionaire donors, who have increased their wealth during the pandemic by more than £100 billion, who are paying the price; it is key workers like my former colleagues in social care, shop workers and teaching assistants. For many of the families I represent, £20 is the difference between eating and not eating. International law is very clear that cuts should not occur if human rights violations would occur, so is the Secretary of State still “entirely happy” with a cut that will plunge 730,000 children into poverty? What does she have to say to the 14,250 families in Nottingham East and the 6 million families across the country who will lose £1,000 per year?”
“I got into politics in 2013 because I saw the devastating impact of the bedroom tax on my community, my friends and my neighbours. In 2013, we were angry and we were tired of three years of public sector cuts, but never for a minute did I think that I would be here, eight years and billions of pounds of cuts later, asking the Government not to implement the biggest welfare cuts in the history of the welfare state. It is not only the universal credit cuts that will hit low-income families; those cuts are combined with the 3.2% rise in inflation, the national insurance rise, the end of the furlough scheme and the resumption of evictions.”
“If the Government believe in a social care system that is free at the point of use, why are they not delivering a social care system like that, one like the NHS, which is universal and available to everyone?”
“Anything less than a national care service, funded by a tax on wealth, not on workers, would be a great disservice to the people we are elected to this place to represent.”
“I think that this House and working people across the country deserve to know why a wealth tax was dismissed in favour of a tax on the poorest and the lowest paid, and what is more, to fund a plan that will not even work. We have heard during this Committee that the Government’s excuse for not ring-fencing the money raised for social care is that health and social care are interlinked. I agree, to an extent, and that is why, to fix our social care system, we need a national care service, like our national health service, which is free at the point of use. We need to redesign the system so that the needs of care users, for want of a better word, and care workers are at its heart. The money to do that is there but it is in the pockets of the richest and it is the political will from this Government that is sorely lacking.”
“—this is City A.M., not “Das Kapital”—calculated that one wealth tax option would be to tax wealth progressively between £1 million and £10 million, with all wealth beyond £10 million taxed at 3%. That would bring in a total of £55 billion over five years. Alternatively, the economist Richard Murphy calculated that, if wealth was taxed at the same rate as income, that could raise up to £174 billion a year. Will the Minister explain why none of those options was considered and what the Treasury makes of those calculations? And perhaps the Chancellor could explain to us, as a multimillionaire, why he cannot dig deep into his own pockets and why it has to be my constituents—in fact, all our constituents—instead.”
“Member for Aberdeen South (Stephen Flynn), 2.5 million working households will be hit by the cut to universal credit and the increase in national insurance. Working families will be losing, on average, over £1,000 next year. Meanwhile, the furlough scheme is ending and evictions are resuming. There is, however, a group of people who have benefited from the pandemic—who have done very well, in fact: British billionaires. They have increased their wealth by over £100 billion. That is why now is the time to get serious about taxing wealth. The Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, the right hon. Member for South West Surrey (Jeremy Hunt), said earlier in the debate that this tax hike would raise more than a wealth tax, but I am afraid that that is not true on any measure. City A . M .”