Speeches by Coghlan.

“It is when you use defence spending specifically for defence R&D. You are absolutely right that consumption, buying artillery shells or whatever, does not do anything—or does not do much. The reason for that effect is because of the spillovers into civilian technology. In fact, I believe there is an example in the spen…”

“Mr Kumar, I am slightly surprised by your answer to John Glen on defence spending, because we heard yesterday from Dr Surico that defence spending, when tilted towards R&D, is one of the best ways of driving long-term economic growth. In fact, the Chancellor upgraded our long-term GDP forecast by £11 billion a year in …”

“What qualities do you think the Government need to actively pursue to ensure that the conditions are there for the National Wealth Fund to be successful?”

“Building on Yuan Yang’s question, is part of it not that Government R&D would be more focused towards basic research, and then there is the National Wealth Fund? Because you need some form of financial return—even if slightly negative—you presumably cannot do basic research through the National Wealth Fund.”

“I would like to come in with a question. On your point around the National Wealth Fund potentially issuing bonds, how would that impact interest rates, or how could we ensure that issuing large volumes did not have a significant impact on interest rates?”

“Dr Surico, on our previous discussion, there is a lot of scepticism about the MOD’s ability to deliver in terms of new equipment and procurement. How should one best do innovation in defence?”

“While I deplore the alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, that should not cloud our view of the Iranian regime. As a British diplomat covering Syria, I saw how the Iranian regime was directly complicit in the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians. I was a British soldier in Iraq in 2020, and the…”

“As the Chancellor knows, our economy will only escape its difficult place if we raise economic productivity. On the Treasury Committee, I introduced the Chancellor to London Business School’s Paolo Surico’s research on how using public R&D, and especially defence spending, can help us to do that. In the spring stat…”

“Mr Rathi, in your evidence to the Lords you advanced the idea of metrics for tolerable harm or tolerable failure. How have those discussions advanced with the Government?”

“Specifically for cancer patients.”

“And that will include this particular issue.”

“I have seen reporting that cancer patients are being priced out by being charged £3,000 for travel insurance. My constituents and the cancer support charity Maggie’s have raised that. Are you looking into it? If so, should you be? What are you doing about it?”

“The Government will obviously be saying to you that they are very keen on growth, but are you worried that, at the moment, some tolerable harm could materialise and they will just blame the FCA?”

“There is one final question from me. On R&D tax credits, I know you have had issues with refunds. Is there a risk that these issues could act as a disincentive to investment and a barrier to the Government’s objectives of driving innovation and growth?”

“Essentially, you are saying that there is legitimate reason, not a lack of resources.”

“Ms MacDonald, an issue for businesses in my constituency has been delays in processing refunds under the construction industry scheme. They are telling me that payments used to take five weeks, but now they are taking five to seven months. That has caused very serious cash flow issues for some businesses and in fact ha…”

“To your point, we have seen an increase in US bond yields and a rise in US tariffs, yet a fall in the dollar, which you would not expect. Do you think that there is a chance of that being a long-term threat to the dollar’s safe haven status?”

“Governor, we have seen a dramatic recovery in equity markets in recent weeks since the heavy sell-off following liberation day. To what extent do you support the hypothesis of the TACO trade, that the damage that President Trump does to the world economy is overstated because Trump always chickens out and he is terrifi…”

“Governor, what is your view?”

“Is there anything you want to add, Governor?”