Speeches by Glen.

“We have listened carefully to the measures and activities that you set out yesterday and again this morning. My question is simple: do you rule out addressing the fuel duty at all?”

“Yesterday, the OBR confirmed that, when you have taken account of the commitments you have made—3% on defence, the SEND investment and the average spending on health—if you look at the unprotected Departments in the last year of the Parliament, there will be a £13 billion gap and a 4.4% cut in spending across those. Ob…”

“£106 billion.”

“Yes. It is also the impact on growth. It is very marginal in 2027 and ’28.”

“That was nearly 30 years ago. We have seen youth unemployment at record levels now, in these first 20 months of your Government.”

“I am just not clear what you think is going to get those people into employment in the first place, and what is going to persuade employers, given the context that now exists for them, to make the decision to employ people.”

“0.1% next year and 0.1% the following year?”

“What I am asking about is this: if the propensity to employ somebody is less, that is a theoretical construct, because the person will not be in a job in the first place. Are you saying that you are committed to a higher-cost labour and higher capital investment growth strategy? Is that a fair summary of where your mea…”

“Can I ask a question about the overall tax burden? You have a £10 billion further increase in the last year of the Parliament, and people are seeing that the level of tax overall is heading up to 50% of GDP. Do you have a view on what effect that has on the motivation of people to work and invest? Is there any upper li…”

“Chancellor, what I am trying to get at is this. We have about 5.5 million small businesses that say the combination of the national insurance increases, the doubling—broadly—of the rate of inflation, the increases in the national living wage, and the uncertainty over the effect of the Employment Rights Act, given that …”

“What does it do for an employer who is anxious?”

“Between your forecast in late November and last week, growth for this year went from 1.4% to 1.1%. Can you explain the main drivers of that?”

“What assessment do you and your officials make regarding the effect of taxation on economic activity? You arguably made quite a delicate judgment on capital gains tax—”

“Of course. Can I ask one last question on fuel duty? You have postponed the removal of the freeze until September. We have had 15 years of freezes. You will talk about, as you did yesterday, what you inherited and that deferred choice, but it was not in any Finance Bill. In the context—obviously, Governments respond to…”

“The answer the Chief Secretary tried to give me this morning was about the value of efficiencies. Have we seen efficiencies on a scale to deal with a 4.4% deficit?”

“Never trust them!”

“That is, in any terms, quite a challenging situation for any Government in terms of the presentational reality of a cut of over 4% in those unprotected Departments. It leads one to draw the conclusion that all these numbers are loaded to get through the immediate term but are not very realistic. What are the scenarios …”

“Chancellor, you have talked about your youth guarantee and apprenticeships to help deal with the record youth unemployment, but I want to turn to AI. How do you see AI? It could have a massive effect on the economy and employment. Could you tell us what assessment you have made and what the Treasury is doing to evaluat…”

“I do not really disagree with any of that, but my point is that there is rapid change. People are saying that in two years call centres will not exist. There could be significant segments, both geographically and across the age distribution, of jobs that do not exist. Can you give us any more information about what the…”

“Could I ask a question about the presumptions of spending? I think the Government say they want a real-terms increase of 0.3% in ’29-30. If you assume that they spend on health at the average level, they spend on SEND as per the proposals and they make their 3% on defence by ’29-30, I think it has been calculated that …”