Speeches by Murphy.

“Do you think there would be a negative reaction from the bond markets if such a change were to be made?”

“I am grateful to the Secretary of State for his answer. As part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, I was recently privileged to spend time in the High North, in Norway, with our Royal Marines and other armed forces personnel. It was a stark reminder of their service, and the sacrifice that they make to protect o…”

“5. What steps he is taking to increase pay for military personnel.”

“Do you worry that, having come under some criticism—or debate—around modelling around productivity and its impact last year, you could be missing it on the upside? Is that fair?”

“I have two follow-up questions. The first is on the productivity point and the work that the Resolution Foundation has done, particularly looking at payroll data rather than the labour force survey. What is your assessment of their analysis?”

“I want to follow up on Mr Coghlan’s point on the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank. I know that the Government are considering multilateral propositions around procurement, but the bank is specifically about mobilising capital. Are the Government considering that proposition directly, or other multilateral proposit…”

“On the point about the regularity of shocks, I think there is research showing that half the recessions we have experienced since the 1970s have been a result of energy price shocks. We are particularly exposed in the UK, and those shocks are arguably becoming more regular. Given the significant impact these shocks hav…”

“If the crisis was sustained for a prolonged period, how concerned would you be about the affordability of the Government repeating the kind of energy bills scheme we saw during the Ukraine crisis?”

“On the point about employment rights, is there an argument that this will lead to more productive employees? There is a lot of evidence that shows that greater security will lead to more productive employees, which is actually better for business. Is that part of the theory of growth as well?”

“If, for the sake of argument, the war came to an end at the end of today and prices began to fall back, would we still see a longer-term impact on inflation, or do you think that will be shorter? I am trying to get a sense of a degree of time that this would have to go on for it to have that kind of—”

“In our previous panel, Professor Miles from the OBR suggested that if this was prolonged, we could see inflation rise to 3% by the end of the year. Do you think it is too soon to make modelling assumptions around that? I will direct that to you, Dr Sen, and then perhaps you, Ms Miller, could say a bit about what this i…”

“How do you think this crisis reflects on the UK Government’s current medium to long-term energy policy of moving to clean energy? Do you think it has validated it in some way?”

“Before that implication of 1% higher inflation by the end of the year—”

“Beyond oil, do you have a view on the broader basket of products that we are going to see inflationary impacts in? I think someone talked about fertiliser.”

“How long would that position have to be sustained? Say that prices stayed as they are at the moment, for what period—”

“Essentially, you are saying that, even if this were to end tomorrow, there are medium to long-term impacts we now need to factor in, although we do not necessarily know what all the implications are. Is that fair?”

“Finally, the electricity generator levy is, I believe, set at £75 per megawatt-hour. I asked this question in the House, but do you believe that it is set at the right level for it to be activated, or should the Treasury be looking at that? Should the Treasury potentially be considering whether that should be extended …”

“Chancellor, everyone wants de-escalation, but we have to accept that this may be prolonged. In those circumstances, what preparation is under way in the Treasury for planning to support consumers and businesses with their energy bills?”

“Dr Sen, I want to focus on the impact of the Iran war. Will you set out your view on the current impact on oil and gas, and on which is more affected?”

“Thank you for the answer. So it is too soon to take decisions, but not too soon to prepare. I wonder whether you have any views on whether the Government is better prepared, or in a better place, to offer more targeted energy bill support. The previous Government had to offer quite broad-based support, costing £78 bill…”