Speeches by Reeves.

“Yes—the answer to John Glen’s question.”

“That is exactly—no, no, no. That is not what I said. Sorry, Dame Harriett—”

“The OBR look at the interaction of policies when they look at the indirect effects of the Budget package as a whole, so they are taken into account in the forecast. The distributional analysis obviously takes into account all the policies and how they interact with each other.”

“I met Tom Josephs and David Miles earlier this week, along with the permanent secretary, to thank them for their service and for continuing in their roles. It is unlikely that we will have a new chair for the spring forecast, because we obviously need to go through a rigorous process, but they are happy and confident t…”

“I think it is most likely to be early in the new year, as it is only a week or so until the Christmas recess, but we will put it out as soon as we can.”

“Yes, and I and my team of officials are very clear about the Macpherson principles. Of course, as I said yesterday in Parliament, I did not disclose confidential information. As I have also been clear, there have been leaks, and that is why we have set up a leak inquiry, and why we are doing this work. That investigati…”

“As I have just said, Dame Meg, there were leaks that were clearly not authorised. That is very serious, which is why this review is going on. If you would like me to address specifically the issues on 13 November, I am very happy to do so.”

“I do not want to give you a number without being able to check.”

“On 4 November, I gave a speech where I set out my priorities for the Budget: to cut the cost of living, to cut NHS waiting lists and to cut the debt and the deficit. I was clear in that speech that I wanted to build more resilient public finances, with the headroom to withstand global turbulence. As you saw when I deli…”

“It was not an “off-the-record briefing”; it was a leak.”

“I am absolutely categorical that that was not an authorised briefing. It was incredibly damaging and frustrating. That is why we have a leak inquiry. It was not “briefing” that was signed off by me or any of my Ministers or officials. It was unacceptable. That is why there is a leak inquiry going on.”

“And of course it is right that it looks at all those people. That is not suggesting that we think any of those people are responsible, but everybody who had access to this information should rightly be part of that leak inquiry.”

“Yes, I agree with the permanent secretary.”

“I said in my speech on 4 November that everyone would have to contribute. We were able to keep that contribution as low as we did by using a range of more progressive taxes such as the high value council tax, the gambling tax and tax on dividends on property.”

“Thank you very much, Dame Meg. It is wonderful to be here giving evidence to your Select Committee again. First, I thank Richard Hughes for his service. You will have seen his letter of resignation and my response to it; I thank Richard for his leadership of the OBR, as well as his distinguished public service both at …”

“We will definitely look at that.”

“Dame Harriett, I recognise that businesses are crunching through all the numbers now, and I would urge all businesses, and also parliamentarians when we are interacting, to make sure that businesses understand the transitional relief. I know there have been a number of businesses that have seen the headlines without un…”

“Well, yes. We look at things like the sectoral impact of policies, so the impact of policies on families with children, on pensioner households—”

“Yes, and—”

“We have protected the capital budget, which is really important for improving the productivity of public services. We have also agreed with Departments £14 billion-worth of efficiency savings. We are tracking those closely, and we are delivering against those targets. We have set out further efficiency targets in the B…”