Speeches by Reeves.

“Professor John Van Reenen, who is chair of the council of economic advisers, attended meetings with the Office for Budget Responsibility. He also attended some of the technical meetings, where he provided evidence to the OBR on the different measures that the Government are taking forward. I feel very fortunate to have…”

“Yes, I do. I do not condone leaks. There is always going to be speculation ahead of things like a spring statement, or a Budget, about the different measures. Some people who say that they are a source close to one Department or another are not always as close as they say they are, so sometimes those leaks are more spe…”

“I do not think I made the same comments, but the analogy—comparing pocket money and personal independence payments—is clearly not right.”

“It is a pleasure to be here at your Select Committee today, Chair and members of the Committee. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has apologised for the clumsy language that he used. It was not the right language. I was asked a specific question. I did not, first of all, hear the previous interview of the Chief Secre…”

“His term is up on 3 October, so we recognise that we need to make those decisions quickly, and you will be the first people to know when we have done that.”

“You would have to tell me what you are referring to.”

“Another measure you can look at is GDP per capita. That fell in the last Parliament, and the OBR forecast that it will increase by, I think, 5.5% during the course of this Parliament. Obviously there are different measures, but whether you are measuring RHDI or GDP per capita, both are forecast to rise. That is after t…”

“As I said in the previous answer, it is the average, so some years it is more than £500 and some years it is less. That £500 is the average additional RHDI for the spring statement that I delivered last week compared with the last Budget the Conservatives delivered. In that time, the OBR forecasts that, on average, RHD…”

“The Office for Budget Responsibility say that three quarters of the deterioration in the fiscal position since the Budget last year was to do with movements in Government bond yields. You will know that our bond yields have moved in line with our European peers—”

“I guess that is more of a question for the Work and Pensions Secretary, but Liz Kendall has always been very clear, including when she was the Opposition spokesperson, that everybody who can work, should work, and that we need to do more to support people into work.”

“We wanted to make sure that we got the package of measures right. The Department for Work and Pensions has been working on them, and it slipped them out ahead of the spring statement. From our time in opposition, we have focused on how we can support more people into work. The current system is clearly not doing that—”

“Various aspects are being consulted on through the Green Paper. We think we have the balance right between the legislation and the things that are being consulted on. It will have scrutiny through the parliamentary process, in Committee and debate in the House.”

“The legislation will face scrutiny in both Houses of Parliament, and rightly so. We have been very clear about the precise elements of the package. [Interruption.]”

“I think it is a huge opportunity to secure more good jobs, paying good wages and—going back to our discussion earlier—in all parts of the country. These jobs are geographically spread, from Rosyth to Derby to Wrexham to Bristol. There are so many fantastic firms, big and small, in the defence sector. This is an opportu…”

“We appointed Tom Hayhoe earlier this year, but he has only been in post for a couple of months. He is working to see what money can be clawed back, and working with different counterparties across Government in the fraud area. We are determined to do everything we can to get that money back. We will be setting out more…”

“It is not in these documents.”

“We will soon publish more information on his work. It is important work. He has only been in post for a couple of months.”

“I am not going to pluck numbers out—”

“Right. That has not been raised with me or—I don’t think—the permanent secretary. There is often speculation ahead of a spring statement or a Budget. I do not know which information you are referring to, but the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the week before the spring statement, set out the details to the H…”

“We do not want to rush it, because we want to make sure that we understand people’s different needs, but do I think that reform would be worthwhile. That is what we are looking at at the moment.”