Speeches by Reeves.

“With respect, Mr Glen, we saw the number of people not in education, employment or training under the last Conservative Government increase by more than 100,000. That was not because of greater protections at work and increases in people’s wages; in fact, living standards went backwards in the last Parliament. I just d…”

“I think you have to take into account the impact that it will have on employees as consumers. If you have got more money in your pocket, that is more money to spend on your local high street and in your local business. This argument played out when the last Labour Government introduced the national minimum wage in the …”

“I think you have to look at these things in the round, because if you are a worker on a zero-hours contract and you do not know next week how many hours you are going to get, it is very difficult to be able to plan anything for the future, and it is very difficult to spend money because you have to build up precautiona…”

“Apart from it gives people greater security. If you know that you will get sick pay from day one, that means you have a bit more confidence to spend the money—”

“If you look at the OBR forecast and the things the OBR have taken into account, they have taken into account, for example, our increase in capital spending. As I say, that will have a positive impact on the size of the economy. The OBR have also taken into account some of our planning reforms and are saying that they h…”

“I will say it then. [Laughter.] We have to design the scheme and make sure it functions properly.”

“I wouldn’t say that they are medium-term measures, because they are things that are coming in this year. Let me address employment, and then energy. The youth guarantee scheme that I announced in the Budget last year comes in in the next couple of months, and that includes the job guarantee for young people who have be…”

“Last year we were the fastest growing European country in the G7, and that is also forecast to be the case this year; but the truth is that growth, both here and around the world, especially in the advanced economies, is not as strong as we would like it to be, which is why I have always said that growth is the No. 1 m…”

“As I have already confirmed, we are looking at all eventualities, but the root cause of this is the challenge in getting oil and gas out of the middle east, so the best way to deal with this is to address that at the root.”

“What I would say is that we are much too early, less than two weeks into the conflict, to have any certainty about what things would look like when the next energy price cap is determined at the end of May, for July, and we will work flat out to try and de-escalate this conflict and crucially, from an economic perspect…”

“And I would say to businesses providing heating oil that it is not right to say that you will only sell in large quantities at the moment. That is not fair on customers, and I would encourage consumers to push back and to shop around in circumstances where they are being told they can only buy a large quantity at a ver…”

“Let me give you a couple of examples. Some companies are saying that you can only buy a larger quantity; they won’t sell in small quantities, whereas at the moment many people want to top up a little bit at the higher price, but not to fill up their whole tank. So we are looking at some of those market practices, which…”

“I know that is not an option for some people, if they are out of heating oil. That is why we are working very rapidly with the Competition and Markets Authority on a range of issues. My colleague the Financial Secretary to the Treasury has already had a number of meetings in the last couple of days, and is meeting MPs.…”

“On businesses, it is also worth noting that the supercharger extension comes in at the beginning of April. That increases the discount for the most energy-intensive industries from 60% to 90%. That was planned anyway, and it will come in. We are also working with the Department for Business and Trade on the British ind…”

“Mr Glen was in the Department when Russia invaded Ukraine and a lot of this work started then. But as you rightly suggest, Dame Meg, it did not progress and it was not far enough in advance to be able to have more targeted support, but I know that was something that was looked at by the previous Government. To be hones…”

“Tomorrow, I will meet with the Competition and Markets Authority and petrol retailers.”

“Another route into the cost of living is through petrol and diesel prices at the pumps. We have started to use the cheaper fuel finder that the Government have been working on for the last few months. As I said in the House yesterday, at the beginning of this week there was a range in prices between just under 130p per…”

“No, the main concern and the main response is to try to de-escalate the crisis, because that is the main reason that prices are at elevated levels. I made the point on how important that is, and how important it is to get vessels flowing, but we have already started work with the Competition and Markets Authority.”

“Already, given the unique situation with heating oil, we are working with the Competition and Markets Authority on any price gouging in that sector.”

“On the electricity generator levy, that goes to the point I made earlier that less of the price of our energy bill is determined by the marginal gas price than it was when Russia invaded Ukraine. That means that those prices will not go up in the same way that they would have previously, because we are paying a set pri…”