Opinion: Budget failed to show us a post-Brexit future

They said they would eliminate the deficit, but we now know we will still have a deficit of £16bn in 2022. They said they would reduce the debt, but it is still rising. They also said, very clearly, that there would be “no increases in VAT, national insurance contributions, or income tax”. Yesterday the chancellor broke that promise too, slapping a multi-million pound tax rise on the self-employed to pay for the price of their failure.

But what the chancellor did yesterday was less important than what he didn’t do. Yesterday’s Budget was the first delivered by the new chancellor and the first since the vote to leave the EU. Whichever side of the referendum people were on, it is undeniable that Brexit is going to have a huge impact on our economy.

We are approaching the next few years under a massive cloud of uncertainty and there was nothing in the Budget to ease these worries. In fact the independent Office for Budgetary Responsibility has said the government has simply not given the information to forecast our economic future with any certainty. Yesterday was a missed opportunity to give us more clarity about how the government plans to deal with the economic fallout from Brexit.

The Budget was also a missed opportunity to correct the injustice faced by the hundreds of Furness women hit by unfair changes to their state pension. These WASPI women marched past parliament yesterday to try to persuade the chancellor to listen, but he continued to ignore the injustice his government is causing them. I went to support the march yesterday and will continue to campaign alongside local women to make sure they get the pensions they are entitled to.

I will also continue to speak to local businesses affected by the government’s business rates hike. The chancellor announced a couple of small measures in the Budget, but a £1,000 discount for pubs will come nowhere near compensating landlords for the massive increases that are threatening their businesses. I am holding a meeting tomorrow at 3pm at the Duke of Edinburgh for local business owners to listen to their concerns and work on a way forward.

The Budget may have dominated the week in parliament, but in Cumbria I know everyone has been shocked by the horrific stories of malpractice and neglect of animals at South Lakes Safari Zoo. Some of the findings of the investigators are truly sickening and it is absolutely right that the council has refused to grant the owner a new licence.

I want this much-loved institution to have a future but it can only do so if there is a total change of culture so animals are respected and not mistreated. Changing the name on the door and making some modest improvements simply will not do. There should be a complete clear-out of the management team who had anything to do with this catastrophe, which makes me highly sceptical of the fresh bid immediately submitted to take over the zoo – the new bid may not formally be in Mr Gill’s name but it is from a team who have worked closely with him.

Finally, the scale of the neglect raises serious questions about how the nation regulates its zoos so animals can never again suffer like this in Britain. Barrow Borough Council imposed some tough conditions on the zoo in 2016 that were welcomed by animal rights charities and directly led to the licence refusal this week. But why is the path to closure which the rules oblige local authorities to follow so slow? And why did last year’s inspection not pick up anything like the scale of neglect which was revealed this week?

There were serious concerns over the years – and of course the tragic death of Sarah McClay for which the zoo admitted responsibility – but the shocking evidence considered by the licensing committee revealed a whole new level of neglect.

These question needs to be answered and I welcome the call for an inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Zoos.