Speeches by Baldwin.

“Can you share with the Committee what the impact that you have given to the Treasury is?”

“It is an up. Is it an increase?”

“I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. He mentioned parental consent—what would happen in a situation where the child was in the care of the state? Would they be included or excluded from this trial?”

“rose—”

“Mr Saks, on the supply chain question, I wondered if you had done any work on the impact of the 50% tariff coming in for steel manufacturers and imported steel. Presumably, quite a lot of people in the supply chain rely on imported steel. The 50% tariff with lower quotas is going to raise the cost of steel across the e…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“I thank the Minister for giving way. If everything is so great, why has Lord Robertson described the Government’s situation as one of “corrosive complacency”?”

“On 1 July, the Trade Minister is slapping a 50% tariff on steel from many of our allies, much of which goes into the aerospace and defence supply chain. That will affect the cost of the defence investment plan. Will the Minister urgently review those tariffs and their impact on our defence spending? I am sure he will a…”

“We heard that list before. I am going to put on the record, Chair, my concern that the Chief Secretary is not aware that interest rates are now considerably higher than they were under that 49-day premiership that she alluded to. On the point about the evidence that the Committee received, I want to highlight the fact …”

“My hon. Friend the Member for Droitwich and Evesham (Nigel Huddleston) and I have a hope, which is that parking at Worcestershire Parkway station can expand. We have been told by Great Western Railway that it can no longer do that, because it is now the responsibility of Great British Railways. Can the Secretary of Sta…”

“You say it is a system you inherited, and of course that is the case, but the changes you have made include reducing the interest rate, which as we heard earlier actually benefits those on higher incomes. Is that fair?”

“Is it fair to have frozen the thresholds in the way that the Chancellor did? That is another £7.5 billion that will be asked of students in one stroke of the pen.”

“I know there will be more questions about those retrospective changes, but I will carry on asking about interest rates. The Committee has received evidence suggesting the interest rate really should be just a pass-through of what the Government themselves pay. Would that be practical, Chief Secretary?”

“You said in your written submission that 7% was unfair. I think I just heard you not say that 6% is fair. You do not think 6% is fair either do you, Baroness Smith?”

“I am fascinated by the frequent use of the word “fair”, because it is obviously a very subjective term. Is a 6% interest rate “fair”?”

“Yesterday we discussed amendments in which we sought to rein in some of the unfettered powers that the Secretary of State is taking for himself in this legislation. Today’s amendments are about trying to rein in the unfettered liability and financial risk that this legislation puts on the taxpayer. For example, amendme…”

“We are looking at a Bill that the Government’s own impact assessment says might have a bit of a “chilling effect” on inward investment into the sector. We should all want to have inward investment into our economy. If someone who we regard as an excellent owner of this business should come in and make an offer that is …”

“It will be part of what is in the Bill?”

“I take issue with where the hon. Member is coming from on that, because by putting a sensible and finite limit on the amount per employee—and I will speak later to another amendment where we propose an overall limit—we are talking about the amount that has been set by the Chancellor through the spending review envelope…”