Key events
Hunt claims ‘lower taxes mean higher growth’
Hunt says he can now offer permanent cuts in taxation. He is doing this to deliver help in challenging times.
But it is also because “lower taxes mean higher growth”.
He says higher growth cannot come from more immigration.
First up, £1m for a memorial to the “Muslims who died in two world wars in the service of freedom and democracy”.
Nod to current community tensions from the Chancellors – “this country will never forget the sacrifices made”.
Quite noisy in the Chamber as Hunt continues..
— Jessica Frank-Keyes (@JessicaFKeyes) March 6, 2024
Hunt is speaking, but there is very loud heckling.
Jeremy Hunt delivers budget statement
Jeremy Hunt is deliving the budget statement.
He starts by saying MPs mourn the loss of life in Israel and Gaza. He starts recalling the Muslims who died in the two world wars. He will allocated £1m for a memorial for them.
He says this is partly in response to a campaign by Sajid Javid.
PMQs is over, and the budget statement is about to start.
The Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi says Rishi Sunak is wrong in what he said about Keir Starmer’s record on rape convictions as DPP. (See 12.11pm.)
Rape conviction rates rose from 57.7% to 60.3% during @Keir_Starmer’s tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions. Rishi Sunak should retract his lie immediately #PMQs
Rape conviction rates rose from 57.7% to 60.3% during @Keir_Starmer’s tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions. Rishi Sunak should retract his lie immediately #PMQs
— Tonia Antoniazzi MP (@ToniaAntoniazzi) March 6, 2024
Andrew Gwynne (Lab) asks if Sunak agrees all ministers should publish their tax returns. And has Sunak ever filed a tax return in the US he has not published?
Sunak says he does not think it would be proportionate for all ministers to have to publish their tax returns. He says he has been transparent about his own – although he does not specifically address the question about a US tax return.
Angela Eagle (Lab) ask what part of his economic legacy Sunak is most proud of: the highest tax burden since the second world war, or the slowest pace of household income growth since the Napoleonic war?
Sunak says it is saving 10m jobs during the pandemic.
Graham Stringer (Lab) asks about wealth inequalities between the north and the south. Has the levelling-up agenda failed?
Sunak claims inequality has declined under this government. And the north has received some of the highest levelling-up funding per capita.
And he criticises Labour for not saying what it will do about HS2, and the money from the cancellation of phase two that the Tories are reinvesting.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, asks Sunak if he will continue to press the Irish government to continue to do more to investigate crimes that took place during the Troubles in their jurisdiction.
Sunak says he has spoken to the taoiseach on this. He says he wants families to get as much information as possible about these crimes.
David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, says the government should pay proper compensation, not just to post officer operators who were convicted, but who had to repay money to the Post Office they were wrongly accused of stealing.
Sunak backs Davis for his campaigning on this.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader, says the Conservative party in Scotland is furious about Scotland being taxed to fund a tax cut for England. (See 12.01pm.)
Sunak says he won’t comment on the budget. But when he was in Scotland last week, it was clear only the Scottish Conservatives stand up for the energy industry.
Flynn says that is not the case. He says up to 100,000 jobs are at risk. Scotland’s jobs and resources are being lost to help Westminster. Will the PM call an election?
Sunak says, if Flynn supports the energy sector, why has the SNP not backed government moves to help it. And he says Scotland is now the high-tax capital of the UK.
Starmer says the “rosy picture” Sunak paints of the system is at odds with the lack of confidence women have it. And at Westminster the government has not even allowed a vote on the plan to ban MPs from the estate if they have been accused of sex offences. When will that be allowed?
Sunak ignores the question about the vote, but lists other measures the government is taking to help women.
Starmer says that claim will be fact checked. He says victims deserve better than this “nonsense”. When will the government commit to matching Labour’s plans to tackle violence against women and girls.
Sunak says the government has already implemented a rape review plan.
