Speeches by Glen.

“The Chancellor’s new debt measure generates £113 billion, which is committed to extra capital expenditure. How do we measure, and how do you account for, the return on investment? Where is that reflected, so that the taxpayer watching the Committee today can see it? Where can the ROI be seen in the public accounts?”

“Given that they are not obliged to make a fixed payment in the same way as DB schemes typically are, it is not inevitable that the trajectory would work like that, is it?”

“One of the commentaries I have seen recently suggests that the way the Debt Management Office operates, with a greater emphasis on long-term linkers, has been expensive for the way our debt is paid for. I recall as a Minister—I think my colleague Dame Harriett would have done the same—engaging with the market to assess…”

“John Grady is going to ask about pensions later, but I want to talk about the impact of some of the changes you point to: the transition from DB to DC pensions and the implied changes in the profile of gilts. I think the OBR says that you push up interest rates on Government debt by around 0.8% if the debt level remain…”

“I will come on to address the fundamental dynamics of spending and that area in particular, but first I want to draw the hon. Gentleman’s attention back to the subject.”

“Absolutely. [Interruption.] I am told that I ought not to take any more interventions, but I will say that Liz Truss’s insight about the imperative for growth was right; we do need to look for growth. What she did not do was examine the conditions to do that in a way that the market could understand, and it had catastr…”

“No, I will a bit of progress now. I will give way to the hon. Gentleman later, even though he did not give way to me earlier. The Chancellor came to the Treasury Committee in November. She said, “We have now set the envelope for spending for this Parliament, and we will not be coming back for more tax increases or, ind…”

“I shall just finish my point and then I will give way to the hon. Gentleman. The typical refrain is then to say, “What about Liz Truss?” I was not a member of Liz Truss’s Government, but I am sure that my colleagues who were did the very best that they could. She was in office for seven weeks. I acknowledge that, polit…”

“A few months ago, I met a former civil servant. He told me that when he was working in government in the run-up to the ’97 election, Ed Balls would come into the Department and say, “Look, this is what our manifesto says, but here is the three-page memo on what we are actually going to do in government.” In fairness to…”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“Does my hon. Friend acknowledge the words of Richard Hughes of the OBR, who said in a report last week: “The UK cannot afford the array of promises that it has made to the public”? He also said that debt is on a trajectory that the UK “can’t sustain”.”

“The right hon. Gentleman is being generous in giving way. One area the Opposition would be looking at is a coherent reform of the welfare system so that, by changing the pathway to entitlement to benefits, we get that whole budget under control, which would make a meaningful difference to the fiscal position that the G…”

“I always try to avoid rhetoric in this matter, and I fully concede—this bit is agreed—that my party lost a significant number of MPs because of our failure to deliver on a number of issues prior to the election. I listened very carefully to what the right hon. Lady said about stronger partnerships, stronger law enforce…”

“I remain concerned that Sir Brian Langstaff has never asked me, as the Minister who was responsible for the design of the scheme, to account for the process that I adopted under the advice of the civil servants that my successor, the Minister, shares. I am concerned now that there will be continued lack of clarity and …”

“The Institute for Fiscal Studies is undoubtedly the country’s leading economic research institute. I pay tribute to Paul Johnson, who finishes after 14 years in his role, and welcome Helen Miller. Clearly, there are challenges for all parties in making tough choices about our public finances, but could we have a debate…”

“Yesterday, the Bar Council facilitated a useful conversation with local barristers in the south-west. I think they have some reservations, but I will leave them to make representations. One thing that they did say, which I urge the Minister to feed into the provisions of the second half of the report, is about the effi…”

“Right, so it is not.”

“That is reassuring.”

“Get the ABI to send it in, please.”

“We want to try to express, for the industry, the collective view of where the regulatory burden is excessive. Thank you for what you have said, but it is not very clear overall where we can draw conclusions about where that burden needs to be reduced. If we are serious about assisting the growth aspirations of the Gove…”