THE MP for North Shropshire said he is broadly supportive of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget, but believes a reduction in corporation tax would have given businesses to grow quicker during the Covid-19 recovery period.

Owen Paterson MP was pleased to see an extension to support packages aimed at helping workers and businesses as the country prepares to begin its route out of the pandemic.

Despite a roadmap out of the current lockdown being revealed recently, Mr Paterson insists we are still currently in the ‘nightmare of Covid’, but hopes we will see businesses start to thrive again from summer onwards.

The MP also praised the announcement that the £20 weekly increase for Universal Credit will continue for a further six months.

He said: “On a daily basis I’m dealing with people and businesses who have been devastated by the drop in the economic activity in certain areas, particularly hospitality.

“The Chancellor has made it clear that as we go on, there will be emphasis on growing the economy, and that is the only way out of this.

“The corporation tax changes until 2023 – I would much rather see taxes reduced on this as to really encourage businesses to grow and employ more people.

“I think it’s very sensible continuing with the support schemes, so I totally support the Universal Credit uplift and many of the other measures.

“Down the road, I will be pushing that the only way out of this is to really push towards growing the economy.”

Mr Paterson believes the Budget announcement ‘broadly’ suits the economic interests of businesses and workers in his constituency.

He continued: “Broadly speaking, north Shropshire’s economic interests run in line with that of the rest of the UK – we have a broad mix of activity.

“So broadly, I do support it. But as I said, we are still in the nightmare of Covid, and as we come out of this through the summer and by September, I will be pushing really hard to make this an effective place for inward investment and to grow businesses, jobs and keep taxes low.

“The endless lesson is if you reduce taxes, you increase revenue and we’re going to need more revenue for health, pensions and public services – the only way to do this is to reduce taxes.”