Speeches by Baldwin.

“It is good to hear that inflation will be back at 2%, which I seem to recall it was back in mid-2024. Dr Pill, you have mentioned the Budget at the end of last year a couple of times, but there was also the Budget in 2024. In the sessions after that Budget, we asked the Governor what impact it might have on inflation. …”

“Can you put a number on that in part?”

“Let me ask the question slightly differently. There are 150,000 fewer people on payrolls than there were at the time of the October 2024 Budget. How much of that impact was a reaction by employers to the measures in the Budget?”

“Does any other member of the panel want to try to disentangle the way in which the economy reacted to the measures in the October 2024 Budget?”

“If I hear you correctly—I am trying to express this in a way my constituents might find less economist speak—there was an impact on inflation, and you are saying that inflation went up, but you think about half of the increase was from the impact of the Budget. You think that wage increases have been less high than the…”

“I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement. The Conservatives very much believe in a sovereign steel industry, but what we see today is a multibillion-pound shot in the dark, and it heralds the end of primary steel production in the UK. Just to set the record straight, there would no longer be an…”

“Many of our constituents will want to react to this announcement today by increasing the amount of money they give. Will the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office continue to offer an aid match option? Given that 0.7% is still technically on the statute book, will the Foreign Secretary bring forward a named vote…”

“This has been an incredibly powerful debate. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed) for securing the debate and my hon. Friends the Members for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) and for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) for their contributions. I also thank Members from across…”

“Are you publishing the decisions that you have come to on that?”

“I look forward to the Minister responding to that, but I think we have heard today that even that weaker delivery obligation is not being met. We also need to consider the wider business context that we are living in. Many businesses like Royal Mail have had to pay this additional jobs tax. The Employment Rights Act is…”

“I always think of the Financial Ombudsman Service as the service that can stand up for my constituents, the little guys, against the big financial services companies. In light of the announcements made by the Government earlier this week, I do have some concerns. I know how extensively the industry has lobbied against …”

“Would you be prepared to resign, if you felt your independence was being threatened?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) on securing this important debate. I should declare that I was once on the board of the Social Investment Bank until 2012, and that my brother-in-law is chief executive of the Oversight Tr…”

“It just feels to me, Chair, that we have a Government dramatically reducing the ability of citizens to have cases seen in front of a jury. I detect a bit of a pattern here. Industry has really got a lot of what it wanted in terms of reducing the independence of the Financial Ombudsman Service and reducing the number of…”

“Impartiality and independence seem to me to be the value of the organisation. Ms Curtice, you used to be a Treasury official, so do you think the steps taken to strengthen the independence of the Office for Budget Responsibility to do an extra assessment when there is a significant fiscal event have strengthened its in…”

“Yes.”

“Could I have a quick yes or no from all four panellists on this: if there were to be a significant reduction in the OBR’s resources, would you want that to be something this Committee is required to be told about?”

“On its budget and its resources to do these things and listen to a wide range of views, should this Committee be given any kind of supervision of its budget and whether it has enough resources in addition to what it already has?”

“The resources it has are not locked either, are they? The Chancellor could choose to reduce those resources.”

“The Committee received evidence from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association that it can actually monitor what is happening to sales of wine and spirits. Should the OBR use more of this microdata in its ongoing evaluation of the measures that the Chancellor might implement?”