‘Playacting’ budget will not bring real change to rural Devon, says MP
Torridge MP Sir Geoffrey Cox says Autumn Budget ‘gestures’ will make no real difference to peoples’ lives
Today’s Autumn Budget has ‘brought no serious’ change says Torridge MP Sir Geoffrey Cox KC as he called Chancellor John Healey’s debut budget ‘playacting’.
The Torridge and Tavistock MP said the change of Prime Minister had brought “no serious change in approach” to the economic realities facing the country and rural families, businesses and farmers.
Sir Geoffrey said: “If you want to work hard, save, build a business, create local employment or put money aside for your retirement, this Labour Government will come after you.
“As the current Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, has himself acknowledged, Labour MPs are always asking: ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’”
The Chancellor earlier today (Wednesday, October 28) revealed a raft of measures in what he called a ‘breathing space’ budget that he said would help households with the cost of living, energy bills and assist smaller businesses.
These included a £100 pay-out to up to 20 million households in England to help with energy costs, a bid to scrap gas bill standing charges, more business rate relief for hospitality businesses and more devolved funding and powers to regional mayors.
As per the Labour manifesto there were no overt tax raises for the majority but taxes on savings interest and rental profits were increased.
Sir Geoffrey Cox responded further to the budget by saying the country was “overspent, over-borrowed, overtaxed and drowning in an out-of-control welfare system.”
He added: “Yet Labour's answer is to pile further taxes on top of those already imposed by Rachel Reeves on people who work hard, save and invest, while offering a derisory £100 handout determined by the arbitrary accident of a household's council tax band, rather than its actual circumstances.
“Such gestures will make no material difference to the fundamental economic realities of people's lives.
“The budget fails to provide a convincing, fully funded long-term plan to meet our essential defence spending commitments to NATO. Nor does it offer any serious response to the critical national interest in food security following the debacle of the Sustainable Farming Incentive in 2026.
“Meanwhile, the measures announced on energy barely scratch the surface of what is needed to bring down energy costs resulting from Labour's Net Zero policies. Rural households dependent on heating oil remain particularly exposed to volatile and rising prices.
“This is not a vision for the country. It is playacting. It represents a continuation of the same feeble indecisiveness and economic prevarication, falling woefully short of the ambition and resolve needed to confront the challenges facing our communities and effect serious change in our national prospects.”