Speeches by Murray.

“I think that retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, which are the backbone of our high street, might object to the idea of permanently lower tax rates as “tinkering around the edges”. That is a fundamental change that we want to bring in from April 2026 to make sure they have stability, certainty and permanently l…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for referencing Wonderful Palate, the business in his constituency. I do not know the details of the rateable value of that property, but I point the owner to the fact that we are retaining small business rate relief, freezing the small business multiplier next year and exten…”

“We set out the details of our decision to increase the rate of national insurance contributions from employers and to reduce the threshold, and we have added the different benefit we will give, particularly to small businesses and charities, by more than doubling the employment allowance. The employer national insuranc…”

“I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for her questions. If she did not succeed in tempting me at the Select Committee, I doubt she will succeed today, but I can reassure her that the decisions we have set out about introducing the permanently lower business rate for RHL—retail, hospitality and leisure—properties b…”

“I am glad to know that the shadow Minister’s morning was well spent cooking up that line about the Davos ski slopes. What he will know, and what sectors across the economy will know, is that having a stable economy is a prerequisite for the investment we need to get the economy growing. That is why we had to take diffi…”

“One of the problems with the Liberal Democrats is that they support all our spending plans, but they do not support any of the tax changes to fund them. This is a prime example. When we talk about increasing employer national insurance contributions, we acknowledge that that was one of the toughest decisions we took at…”

“During the passage of the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill, we set out clearly how the scheme would work to reimburse costs for public departments or local government. That measure is in line with what the previous Government attempted to do with the health and social care levy. W…”

“What we accept is that the difficult decisions we took at the Budget enabled extra funding to be put into the NHS. GP surgeries have had a funding settlement that considers all the pressures on them in the round.”

“We have been clear since the Budget that the decision to raise employer national insurance contributions was one of the toughest we have taken as a Government, and we recognise that it has consequences for businesses. However, we think all businesses will benefit in future from the economic stability that this decision…”

“One of my key priorities as Exchequer Secretary and the Minister with responsibility for HMRC is to oversee a programme of transformation at HMRC to improve its customer service, to digitise the service, to close the tax gap and to ensure that we have the modern, reformed service that we need for the future.”

“It was not with my chair of the board hat on. It was a ministerial consultation, but when that decision went public and everyone around this table knew about it my involvement was in the past. As soon as it is public, it is all signed off by everyone including the PM.”

“He has been appointed.”

“Yes, but there was a different person in one of them. I would feed back my thoughts on the candidates and maybe any areas I thought would be worth focusing on in the interviews. That was the end of my involvement at that stage. Then it went over into the formal process, and they came back with recommendations and so on…”

“The process for recruiting a new Permanent Secretary involves a thing called a fireside chat. There is no fireside as far as I can tell; it is just a chat where I as Minister will chat to potential applicants. There is a commissioner watching as well to make sure it is all recorded and done in a very fair, recorded way…”

“To take the decision that we took, we had the information that we needed.”

“Just to be really clear in terms of the very specific question around inheritance tax, what is relevant there is HMRC data on claims. All the other features of the farm or the business that sits behind the inheritance tax claim do not tell you the ultimate question, which is around the value of the claim, because that …”

“No. This is anecdotal, but what I felt they were less keen on is us tearing up the system and starting something totally different. They would prefer to see step‑by‑step change that they were involved with, and that is really the way that we are approaching it.”

“We are certainly not planning to turn the helpline off. I think that some pensioners will want to phone up. Others will be happy to do it online.”

“There you go. Dan is quicker at looking up than I am.”

“We definitely have those numbers because I read them last night, but I want to make sure I get them right by getting them for you rather than trying to estimate them.”