Speeches by Reeves.

“The support that we announced yesterday on the phase-out of internal combustion engine cars was very much welcomed by the automotive sector. It will give much more flexibility around the allowances and around plug-in hybrid vehicles. All of that is welcome, but we are keeping a watching brief as well as trying to ensur…”

“We inherited the settlement made by the previous Government, as the hon. and learned Member will know. There is a summit between the UK and the EU on 18 May where we will be looking to reduce the barriers to trade between the whole of the United Kingdom and the European Union. We recognise the specific issues around No…”

“The first duty of any Government is to keep the nation safe. That is why we are increasing defence spending as a share of GDP to 2.5%—the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the cold war. Derby has a vital role to play within the UK’s defence sector, particularly in nuclear engineering and a…”

“Growth is the No.1 priority of this Government. That is why in the autumn Budget and the spring statement we unlocked an additional £113 billion for capital spending, compared with the plans that we inherited from the previous Government. Yesterday we announced significant support for the automotive sector and life sci…”

“I thank the hon. Lady for those questions. This is a time for pragmatism and cool heads, not to rush a response. We are working closely with business. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business and Trade announced in the House last week a call for evidence on the response that businesses are looking for. …”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that response and for his offer to work constructively. I know from my time as shadow Chancellor that those moments when we can work constructively together in the national interest, whether in response to covid or in supporting Ukraine against the aggression of Russia, are when thi…”

“Because of the decisions that we made in the Budget last year, we were able to provide a record settlement for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is a shame that the SNP MPs are not in the Chamber today. It is now the SNP’s responsibility to spend that money wisely and invest in public services. We are bringing d…”

“We are very carefully reducing that spending. Again, you will see in the numbers that we set out last week that it does not just drop off in one year; it is a £500 million reduction this year, increased in subsequent years, because we are not just going to leave programmes high and dry. That would be an irresponsible t…”

“Look, we have just set out the funding to get to 2.5% of GDP, which is through a reduction in the international development budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP. You can see in the numbers that all that money is being redirected into defence. That is the right priority, given the challenges that we face. We are achieving th…”

“We might not be inside the European Union, but we are very much inside Europe. We have a shared objective with our allies in and outside the European Union—there are other European nations that are not in the European Union who want to be part of defending our continent. Certainly, our allies in the European Union reco…”

“We absolutely need to learn lessons from the past on failed and poor procurement, and on cost overruns. That is why we are determined to do things differently. It is why I am working closely with the Defence Secretary to get value for money for our defence spending. It is also why we are looking, too, at more innovativ…”

“Yes. It was consistent both with the Green Paper and with the Secretary of State’s statement to the House of Commons.”

“In the Budget last year, we increased two broad types of tax. We increased national insurance on business, which we have already discussed, and we also increased taxes on the most wealthy. The reforms to the non-dom tax status will bring in £12 billion during the course of this Parliament. VAT on private schools will b…”

“Yes, and your constituents in Glasgow and mine in Leeds West and Pudsey do not need the OBR or their MP to tell them that, because it is what happened a few years ago. The cost of borrowing for businesses and families went through the roof, uncertainty was all around us, and it constrained the ability of our economy to…”

“There would be numerous impacts if we increased borrowing and were not able to deliver economic and fiscal stability. The first is that the national debt, which is already almost the size of our economy, would grow larger still, and that would increase the servicing costs of that debt, which are already £105.3 billion …”

“To go back to the £30 billion of headroom, that would require £20 billion of tax increases. Actually, it would probably require more than £20 billion of tax increases, because if you do that, the OBR may well assume that the economy would therefore weaken, so you would need to do even more than that. Or you would need …”

“It would be nice to block him out.”

“Indeed, and the Employment Rights Bill will put more money in people’s pockets, so there are upsides and downsides there. There are things—the Government are not passive; we are doing a number of things, such as the capital markets reform. I think everybody in this room recognises, because some of it draws on what the …”

“I am not going to write another four years’ worth of Budgets—that would not be responsible—but I can assure the Committee that I will not need to repeat a Budget on that scale because we have now wiped the slate clean and put our public finances on a firm footing. Indeed, in the spending review in two-and-a-bit months’…”

“I said in the Budget last year that it was a once-in-a-Parliament Budget to wipe the slate clean after the economic mismanagement of the previous Administration. We made a number of difficult decisions around taxation. We increased taxes on the wealthiest in our country, and we also increased, as we have discussed, tax…”