Daisy Cooper was on Sunday with Trevor Phillips on Sky News. As our new Treasury Spokesperson, she was asked about what she wanted to see in the Budget.
But first, she was asked whether she accepted the Government’s narrative about the £22 billion black hole in the public finances.
She replied that there was no doubt that Conservatives left the economy in a mess. There may be an argument about the 22 billion number but what people want to know is if public services are going to get better. Are they going to get the health and social care they need?
She said that we were deeply uncomfortable about the rumoured increase in National Insurance employers’ contribution because of the effect on smaller businesses. In particular, she mentioned how this might affect small care companies and that might lead to even more care home closures and increase the crisis in care.
However, we would support taxing banks and gambling companies and changing fiscal rules to allow more investment to build more schools and hospitals.
Another rumour is that fuel duty is going to go up for the first time in 15 years. Daisy said that we were concerned about the impact of doing this during a cost of living crisis. If there was a viable alternative with good public transport it might be easier to stomach. The burden of cleaning up the Tory mess should be on big companies, not on ordinary people.
She was pressed by Phillips about the effect of our proposals on taxing banks. What impact would that have on our savings and pensions? She answered that the four or five biggest banks made £40 billion in profit and we want to reverse the tax cuts they have had which could raise just a tenth of that, a small amount of money for them, to help turn our public services around.
She said that we would have to look at the budget as a whole but would likely vote against a rise in employers’ NI contribution.
The main Liberal Democrat priority for the Budget was to see health and social care. Daisy talked about her own experience of serious illness and her Crohn’s diagnosis:
In 2012 I had been very ill, struggling to get a diagnosis and was rushed into A and E. After a few weeks of drug therapy, they concluded that she would have 4 days to live if she didn’t have life changing surgery.
I talked about my personal experience because I am living proof as so many people are that when you have strong health services, not only can you improve people’s lives and health outcomes but you can enable people to get back to work and be productive in the economy and help with jobs and growth. Health and wealth are two sides of the same coin and if the Government want to turn the economy around, they have to put health and care front and centre in their budget.
Often when people talk about budgets and the economy, they do so in a way that doesn’t relate to real lives. Daisy spoke in clear and simple and human terms about where our priorities lay. It was a really good, confident interview. I hope we’ll see a lot more of her around the budget coverage.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings