The government should ‘stop wasting money’ rather than increasing taxes, Wokingham’s Conservative MP has said. 

John Redwood has called for last week’s autumn statement, delivered by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, to be “amended” by removing what he calls “needless and wasteful” spending with the goal of lowering taxation. 

As inflation exceeds 11 per cent, the tax rises announced by the Chancellor will mean anyone in Wokingham earning over £9,000 per year will see their wage packet shrink in relative terms, according to calculations by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). 

Some of the spending pledges Mr Redwood believes should be reevaluated include energy advertising campaigns, overseas aid, HS2, and housing asylum seekers.  

READ MORE: Council taxes to increase as government lifts referendum cap

He said: “We do not need a government ad campaign to tell us turning down the thermostat would cut our energy use. People are not stupid.   

“What we do need is a government sector that turns the lights and heating off when it is not using its buildings. We need them to cut the number of buildings they use now there is so much homeworking.” 

The Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Wokingham, Clive Jones, believes that a public campaign to remind people of what they can do is “very helpful” and said many are following the guidance. 

He added: “We are moving out of two floors in Wokingham head office so they won’t be heated or lit to the same extent, we will be saving a few thousand pounds by doing so.” 

At this year's COP 27 climate change conference in Egypt, nearly 200 countries agreed to give money to the nations most impacted by climate change for the “loss and damage” caused.  

READ MORE: Bracknell's The Lexicon Christmas market opened by the mayor

Mr Redwood expressed opposition to this as it would increase the UK’s overseas aid budget.  

Mr Jones disagrees. He said: “We are an extremely wealthy nation compared to lots of other countries in the world and we should be helping them where we can.” 

Instead, Mr Redwood is calling for the government to “control our borders to stop illegal migrants” and criticised the £7m a day spent to house asylum seekers in hotels as “wrong”. 

Mr Jones said in response: “What is he doing to get the home secretary to get on with the assessments? They have done nothing for over a year, he should stop trying to demonise them and sort out the problem.  

“There are people here in Wokingham living in a hotel who have been here over a year waiting for an assessment.” 

READ MORE: Wycombe man dressed as Spider-Man paints England flags on roundabouts

Further savings could be made by recruiting more NHS staff to replace agency temps, according to Mr Redwood. 

But Mr Jones says “it’s his Brexit policy” that is causing many of the problems in the health service that are resulting in more being spent on agency staff. 

“Brexit meant that hundreds of thousands of people left the country because they weren’t welcome, many of whom were working in our hospitals.” 

The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates that Brexit, which Mr Redwood supported, will cost the UK four per cent of GDP.