Speeches by Reeves.

“A couple of things. First of all, in the speech on 4 November, I was very clear that everyone would have to make a contribution, and you saw that in the Budget on 26 November: we froze, for an additional three years, the tax thresholds—national insurance and income tax—that the previous Government had frozen for seven …”

“Those were the two options that were available. As the Prime Minister has subsequently said, we did look at whether we needed to increase the rates of income tax, given our concerns around the forecast and particularly the productivity downgrade, which took £16 billion off in terms of revenues in the final year of the …”

“Of course there are always other options available. There are a number of policies leading up to the Budget that we cost. As the Prime Minister has been clear—”

“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.”

“Yes, I agree with the permanent secretary.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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…”

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

“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.”

“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…”

“Yes—but don’t contradict what I have just said.”

“Not at all. The £22 billion black hole left by the previous Government, which we had to fill, was set out to me by Treasury officials on the weekend that I became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Then there was the £16 billion downgrade to productivity and the impact that that had on fiscal revenue. The Office for Budget R…”

“Shall I finish answering your question, Dame Harriett? You have asked about economic growth. You will know that in the spring, the OBR upgraded their growth forecast. It was the biggest upgrade to growth from a non-fiscal measure that the OBR, in its 15-year history now, has ever made. That reflected the changes we mad…”

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

“If there is one thing we know about you, Mr Coghlan, it is that you care very much about R&D, and rightly so. I was very pleased, in the spending review, to be able to increase R&D spending in real terms during the course of this Parliament. I said earlier that the OBR took into account our CDEL spending, which include…”

“The OBR is clear about some of the reasons for the productivity downgrade, as I said to Mr Murphy—the Brexit deal, the pandemic and the decisions of the previous Government. The plans I inherited from the previous Government would have seen capital spending as a share of GDP fall from, I think, 2.5% to 1.9%. We have ma…”

“I think it is best if Chancellors do not get into commenting on the bond markets. I will say that we were very focused on those issues when we put together the Budget package, both on increasing the fiscal headroom—which goes from £9.9 billion to £21.7 billion—and on fiscal consolidation. I recognise that that fiscal c…”

“I believe in the numbers that I set out in my Budget. A lot of people had views of what I was going to do in my Budget and whether I would be able to live within the means set in my Budgets, but we have consistently done that, and we have increased the headroom. We also set out, just before the summer recess, our spend…”