Speeches by Glen.

“My hon. Friend is making a very powerful case, and I echo the sentiment that she has expressed so far. My constituent Sara Taylor came to me to make the case for the restoration of the fund. Her key point was that the economic and fiscal consequences, as Members across the House have said, are so obviously detrimental.…”

“Professor Taylor, you have quite a distinct view of the situation in the labour market—a slightly divergent view, perhaps. Given what the Governor just said about the data points that you all access and the wide lot of qualitative data on expectations, your assessment is slightly different. I think you say that a slow …”

“My colleague Yuan will ask about that.”

“Thank you. I will hand over to my colleague Yuan Yang, who wants to take forward the data points that we are all interested in.”

“The monetary policy report says that labour market conditions continue to weaken. I would like to try and focus on what determines your evaluations of what is happening in the labour market. Lots of assertions are made about national insurance increases or concerns about the Employment Rights Bill leading to an anticip…”

“The network of people across the country who talk to businesses.”

“T5. Last week, Policy Exchange published a very insightful report, “Out of Control”, looking at the pathways to benefit entitlements. It made this point:“Fifty years ago, just one in 2,500 people was said to have Autism; today that has risen to one in 36 children”.Will the ministerial team undertake to look at the impl…”

“T3. On Monday, Tina McKenzie, the policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “For the first time in the history of the Small Business Index more small businesses are predicting they will shrink than expand, meaning that as a country we are potentially facing a very dangerous situation.” I have listened c…”

“It is a pleasure to speak in this debate. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for North Northumberland (David Smith) for the role that he has taken on and the work ahead of him, which he has set out. The whole Chamber and the whole of Parliament will agree that the tone and manner with which he is approaching this complic…”

“I warmly welcome the Leeds reforms; they build on many of the things that were done under the previous Administration and I acknowledge the consumer-facing changes on mortgages and ISAs and the aspiration to get more people investing. Those are positive things. I will just say two things. First, on the listing review, …”

“Let us look at what Governments can do. I think we all agree with your assessment that what has happened over the last seven, eight or 10 years is quite significant. At the spring statement, you were criticised for not having performed the productivity impact assessment of cutting welfare spending in time to put it in …”

“On that specific point, do you identify challenges derived from the different pathway for mental health as a specific particular challenge in terms of the volume and cost of welfare?”

“Thank you, Mr Hughes.”

“Well, perhaps we can draw our conclusions on what we might need to do.”

“Can we just go back to the welfare question? In your report last week, you say that if the current gateway of onboarding people continues, there will be £12 billion extra on welfare by 2029-30 compared with the current time. Do you have quantified options of what choices Parliament and Government could make that would …”

“The fiscal risk registers in your reports paint quite a gloomy picture, and persistently so. Last week you said that there is a trend of “debt ratcheting ever upward” and that you see debt as a percentage of GDP going up a further 5% over the next five years. In the absence of improved economic growth, it is difficult …”

“The Torsten answer!”

“I am just wondering if you think there is a better way, given the policy shift we have seen, of giving the public assurance over the effect of that, such that they can say, “Well, we voted in this Government. They’ve changed these rules—they were perfectly within their rights to do so—but what’s consequential of all th…”

“Yes, some of it isn’t—under my Government too, I am sure.”

“But it is not really explicit, is it? The narrative of the Government will be, “We are investing extra money to fix the mess that was left and invest in productive capacity,” but in terms of a consolidated, neat view of the net impact of that investment, it is quite piecemeal and difficult to put together in one place …”