Speeches by Baldwin.

“No, it could be young people on a high income who decide to go somewhere else where they might pay less tax. I just wondered whether you had asked the question.”

“Okay. We will continue our investigation on that subject.”

“The Chancellor will review mileage rates, but with her fuel duty freeze coming to an end in September and the next fiscal event not happening until later in the year, will she commit to review that decision at the end of this parliamentary Session if petrol prices are significantly higher than they are today, for the s…”

“I am genuinely shocked and surprised to hear the Liberal Democrat line, because I seem to remember when these investigatory powers—including the right to snoop on communications—were first brought in, the hon. Lady’s party was vehemently against them, yet here we are giving these powers to an agency that will cover eve…”

“It is an absolute honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart; you delivered the title of this legislation with a dryness that belies its purpose and impact on our economy. The instrument looks tiny—there is hardly anything in it—yet I am going to argue that the Committee should vote against it this afternoon. I…”

“The Chancellor has announced today that she is not really making any changes at this point, and that she is calling for a de-escalation. What would she say to my rural constituent who uses heating oil and has a virtually empty tank after a long winter, and is facing a 100% increase in the cost of heating oil? I did not…”

“I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement, and—I do not often say these words—I warmly welcome the decision that he has announced. It seems that the Government have abandoned the risk, posed by their earlier proposals, that they would shutter thousands of local post offices, especially in rural areas. It …”

“The hon. Member makes a very important point, and I know that the House will be eager to hear how enthusiastic the Minister is about all the amendments that have been tabled. I am sure we will shortly hear whether he supports them, or why he does not and why he will urge his colleagues to vote against them this evening…”

“This is a short Bill, but it involves potentially raising and spending a huge amount of public money, so in the interests of thorough scrutiny, I will speak to Opposition amendments 3 and 4 to clause 2, concerning the use of public finance for exports that may ultimately be re-exported to sanctioned destinations. Our a…”

“I sense that this is an occasion when the House would appreciate it if I were quite brief, but I am grateful to set out our support for the principles of the Bill, and we will not oppose it on Third Reading. The Bill raises the statutory limits in a way that will enable the Government to provide UK industry with additi…”

“No, but it has an impact on the gilt market, doesn’t it? Presumably, you work closely with the Bank of England in feeding into it about what size of quantitative tightening you think the market can absorb on top of your own issuance.”

“But it will still be an independent body doing the March forecast?”

“You are obviously issuing a lot of gilts. What changes have you seen in who the end purchasers of those gilts are?”

“Will we see an assessment of the headroom?”

“So the Treasury itself will not do the forecasts?”

“Thank you very much. Perhaps, Mr Canty, you would acknowledge that we are very dependent on the “kindness of strangers”, to use the famous words of Mark Carney about issuing gilts. What do you see internationally? Have there been any shifts in the buyers of gilts?”

“It would have been the Treasury that immediately said, “We have to clarify this”?”

“Who officially put that out? Who instigated the official statement?”

“Right. Moving on to the Office for Budget Responsibility, can you update the Committee on the search for a new chair?”

“You will also move on from the simplistic political rhetoric around permanently lower rates, which could be misunderstood, as the UK Statistics Authority has pointed out.”