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1,533 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDOBR ForecastsI am grateful to my noble friend, and I agree with him that this was a very serious breach of highly sensitive information—a fundamental breach of the OBR’s responsibility—and it…01 Dec 2025HANSARDOBR ForecastsI definitely agree with the middle part of the noble Lord’s question on the importance of fiscal responsibility to securing the objectives that we want to see. The best way to…01 Dec 2025HANSARDOBR ForecastsI am grateful to the noble Earl for pointing out my message discipline at this Dispatch Box. I am proud to have mentioned that £22 billion black hole over 50 times. The two noble…01 Dec 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesI am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. No, I do not accept that the Budget is bad overall for growth and for SMEs. As I have said, the OBR has upgraded Britain’s…27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesI am grateful to my noble friend for her support for what we announced yesterday in terms of apprenticeships. We are investing £1.5 billion over the spending review period for…27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesThe noble Lord was characteristically rude, but I will resist being rude back to him. There were very many measures—27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesI am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. The OBR has upgraded Britain’s growth forecast for this year from 1% to 1.5%, reaching the same conclusion as the IMF, the OECD…27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesI am very grateful to my noble friend for what he says about the action we took to help scale-up businesses in the UK. As many noble Lords will know, the UK is already a great…27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesThere were several measures to help businesses scale up. The enterprise management incentive scheme will be significantly expanded and made available to more companies. Enterprise…27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesUnsurprisingly, no, I do not agree with the noble Lord. He will remember that, in the last five years of the previous Government, spending on welfare increased by £88 billion. The…27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesIt does this by cutting the cost of living and reducing inflation, cutting NHS waiting lists and cutting government borrowing every year so interest rates keep falling. For small…27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesThe noble Baroness is absolutely right about the importance of procurement to scale-up firms; I completely agree with her on that point. As part of the announcements that we made…27 Nov 2025HANSARDBudget: Small and Medium-sized BusinessesMy Lords, yesterday’s Budget rejects austerity, instead building a strong and secure economy—27 Nov 2025HANSARDForthcoming Fiscal ChangesI am grateful to the noble Lord for that. As he knows, I am not going to comment on specific measures or any speculation ahead of the Budget. I have set out clearly what our…25 Nov 2025HANSARDForthcoming Fiscal ChangesAs the noble Earl knows, alongside the Budget tomorrow, the Office for Budget Responsibility will set out the conclusions of its review of the supply side of the UK economy. I…25 Nov 2025HANSARDForthcoming Fiscal ChangesI 100% agree with my noble friend. Defence spending and growth go hand in hand. We will see far higher levels of growth in our economy as a result of the investment we are putting…25 Nov 2025HANSARDForthcoming Fiscal ChangesThe noble Baroness talks about stability and chaos; let us talk about 14 years of chaos. First, there was austerity, which took demand out of the economy at exactly the wrong…25 Nov 2025HANSARDForthcoming Fiscal ChangesAs the noble Baroness knows, and as I think I have made clear, I am not going to comment on speculation ahead of the Budget, neither am I going to comment—I never do—on market…25 Nov 2025HANSARDForthcoming Fiscal ChangesI know that the noble Lord thinks that his question is terribly clever, but it is perfectly possible for the Government to have ongoing priorities and for there to be specific…25 Nov 2025HANSARDForthcoming Fiscal ChangesAs I have said already, I am not going to comment on individual measures ahead of the Budget.25 Nov 2025