‘Little point UK making huge effort to get to net zero if China do not act’
IT feels a long time ago now, with everything that has happened since, that the Conservative Party met in Manchester, but it was only the beginning of October.
I was delighted to attend my first inperson conference since I was elected MP for Newcastle and it was great to bring the party together for the first time since our amazing General Election victory in 2019.
I came away inspired by the Prime Minister’s speech, ready to get on with the job of delivering on the public’s priorities.
Building on the vision outlined in the PM’S speech, last week the Chancellor delivered his Autumn Budget and announced the outcome of the departmental Spending Review for the next three years.
I am proud that the Budget prioritises working families. Helping with the cost of living, including through a significant tax cut for low-income families by reducing the Universal Credit taper rate from 63 per cent to 55 per cent, making extra work – or a promotion – pay better for those on lower incomes.
The National Living Wage will be increased by 6.6 per cent to £9.50 an hour – giving a £1,000 pay rise to two million of the lowest paid, and the pay restraints we had to introduce in response to the pandemic will now be lifted for public sector workers.
We are increasing total departmental spending over this Parliament by £150billion.
That’s the largest real terms increase this century, with spending growing by 3.8 per cent a year in real terms. There will be a real terms rise in overall spending for every single government department.
Alongside increases in funding for schools and the NHS, we are also freezing fuel duty for the 12th year in a row, and radically simplifying alcohol duty to make the system fairer.
Underpinning these measures, the Budget strengthens the country’s public finances and will get debt falling again, following the £400billion package of support put in place during the pandemic.
I was elected to unlock the full potential of our town and to improve opportunity for my constituents and I’m confident this Budget sets us up to deliver on our manifesto while putting the public finances back on a sustainable footing.
It would also be remiss of me not to mention COP26, the United Nations Climate Change conference currently being held in Glasgow under the UK’S Presidency.
At COP26, the Government will use the UK’S Presidency to ask countries to commit to net zero by mid-century, with more ambitious nationally determined contribution targets for 2030, and to urgently protect and help adapt our communities and natural habitats from the destructive effects of climate change.
Ultimately, these aims will allow the world to keep the prospect of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C alive, thereby avoiding the worst of climate change damage.
It is certainly regrettable that the President of China, the world’s biggest emitter of coal-power pollution, will not be in attendance.
We must bring China onboard with this mission if it is to have any hope of success – there is little point to us in the UK making a huge effort to get to net zero if the world’s biggest countries do not act as well.
It is welcome that this week India have made net zero commitments for the first time, but is it disappointing their commitment is for net zero only by 2070, rather than mid-century as we in the UK are working towards.
I certainly welcome the general direction of travel but want to remain focused on the real-world impact of these policies.
Our action on this must be widely accepted by – and acceptable to – the public to be delivered, a point I have also made in the House of Commons in debates on this topic. We have to take our constituents with us on all elements of the green agenda.
Most people are very willing to make changes in their daily lives to help protect the environment, but I recognise that we will only maintain public support if we can minimise the impact on people’s own finances.
That is why the Government will need to offer support to encourage the country to make the transition to us all having greener and better lives.