Contributions
1,334 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceThe previous Government and the previous Chancellor should hang their heads in shame for the inheritance they have left for this Government to fix, but I will fix this mess: I…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceMy right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury briefed the Scottish Government today on these decisions. These decisions are necessary: it is not in the interests of the…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceI thank my hon. Friend for that question; I am pleased to have her as a constituency neighbour in Leeds. She is absolutely right that the previous Government went into the…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceWhen I arrived at the Treasury three weeks ago, I asked Treasury officials to do a full analysis. We concluded that analysis over the weekend and I am publishing it today for the…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceI thank my hon. Friend for the question. Everything in Labour’s manifesto was fully costed and fully funded. We now know that on top of the £22-billion black hole that the…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceThere is nothing pro-growth about making commitments that we cannot afford. There is nothing pro-growth about having £22 billion of unfunded commitments. We saw that when Liz…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceI thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue. I will ask my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary to meet him and discuss it further.29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceI thank the hon. Gentleman for the question. We have asked Departments to absorb £3.2 billion of the pressures, but it will be different in different Departments. We know that in…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceI thank my hon. Friend for that question. We were determined to protect the most vulnerable, which is why we made the decision to ensure that the winter fuel payment would still…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceInstead of blaming civil servants, the hon. Lady should blame the people who are really responsible, and that is the previous Government. The country did the right thing by…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceYes, page 5 of the “Fixing the foundations” document that we have published today sets out the pressures on public spending. On rail services: “Pressures have emerged on rail…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceI think the hon. Lady for that question. There are a couple of things we are committed to do. First, pension credit and housing benefit are due to be amalgamated. The previous…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceWe have already introduced legislation to Parliament for a new fiscal lock. We will publish a new charter for budget responsibility at the time of the Budget on 30 October. I have…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceIf our economy had grown at just the average rate for OECD economies over the past 14 years, it would today be worth £140 billion more. That would have been worth £5,000 for every…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceAs the hon. Gentleman knows, estimates have to be published to ensure that Government funding continues, so we had to publish those main estimates, but we will be presenting new…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceWe have now been in the Chamber for one hour and 40 minutes, but we have not had a single apology from any Opposition Members. They should have come to the Chamber today and…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceNone of the decisions that we have made today was easy. None of them was a decision that I wanted to have to make, but leaving unaddressed a £22 billion in-year hole in our public…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceMy right hon. Friend the Health Secretary has agreed to meet all MPs affected and will, of course, also be talking to people who run our health service, to make sure that we can…29 Jul 2024HANSARDPublic Spending: InheritanceI understand the hon. Lady’s frustration and anger on behalf of her constituents that today we had to be honest about the scale of the inheritance we face. There was no money…29 Jul 2024HANSARDEconomy, Welfare and Public ServicesI have been compared to a lot of things, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I have never been compared to Joseph Stalin. Our approach is a brownfield-first approach. We will reintroduce…22 Jul 2024