Speeches by Kendall.

“I have never suggested that.”

“I am fully aware that it is—”

“If I can just finish answering your understandable question—”

“You will forgive me for not agreeing with the characterisation that you have put forward. I never started with pound signs or spreadsheets; I have always started with what I believe can help people with long-term health conditions and disabled people to build a better life for themselves. Our reforms are based on helpi…”

“We all want this resolved as soon as possible. Last time I was here, I think I said that I absolutely want to make sure that we are delivering not just on our legal responsibilities, but to the highest possible standards. We have been very open to that. We, more than anybody, want to get this sorted as quickly as possi…”

“It was a pleasure, as always.  ”

“You will know that we do not publish advice to Ministers, but the chief medical adviser has absolutely been involved at every step of the way. We have published evidence on the impact of those proposed changes on different types of groups with different conditions, and the groups of people that would be more or less li…”

“Overall, it is essential that people have confidence that every pound being spent goes to those who really need it and have the right to that support. I do not think it is acceptable that we inherited a situation of £7.4 billion of benefit fraud specifically a year. I am really proud that, through the fraud and error B…”

“Both will remain available. This is about enabling local authorities. I have to be honest: many of them have already begun to do that. The reason why I am very interested in this is that in my own city we have begun to shift some of that funding within existing rules. We are enabling that, because if local areas believ…”

“It is not a directive. It is enabling local authorities.”

“It is both. I know that in my own city we will still need some of those emergency food vouchers and the emergency payments for people who would otherwise be evicted and at risk of becoming homeless.”

“You will know that the huge number of impact assessments and the evidence pack that we published alongside the original proposals went through some of the different impacts that those proposals would have had. I know that in the report you are asking for our chief medical adviser to be engaged and involved the whole wa…”

“As I mentioned earlier, one of the things we found that particularly plunged families into poverty in Leicester was white goods going wrong, so as part of our local poverty strategy we are trying to set something up where people can get decent white goods as a replacement instead of getting another one on loan, with mo…”

“I am less in favour of ringfencing because local authorities often know best how they can support things locally. We will want some clear objectives and outcomes, but in terms of how that money is best spent—to come back to Horsham—they will know best locally what they want to spend it on. I am not into the business of…”

“I know how anxious people always are when they hear about proposed changes in the benefit system. I think we have ended up in the right place now. We have a really positive story about how we will work with disabled people, with the organisations that represent them and with other experts to make sure we get a system t…”

“This has been a really big, important thing for me since coming in as Secretary of State. We have now secured the first ever three-year funding settlement for what is currently the household support fund, but we want to turn that into a crisis and resilience fund. That now includes discretionary housing payments. That …”

“One thing I would say is that, if you have a discussion in Horsham about these problems, we genuinely want to hear from local experience about what might make a difference. If you are having a housing summit and some of these issues are discussed, feed it into us—feed it into Angela Rayner’s Department—because we want …”

“I just want to emphasise that point. Housing is a massive issue in my constituency, in Leicester. It is the single biggest issue for my constituents. I am only too aware of the pressures on local authorities, but, ultimately, we have to start shifting the focus on to precisely what the permanent secretary said, which i…”

“They will.”

“Actually, no, I don’t. Let’s crack on—I am sure you have lots of questions.”