Speeches by Reeves.

“Not at all. The £22 billion black hole left by the previous Government, which we had to fill, was set out to me by Treasury officials on the weekend that I became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Then there was the £16 billion downgrade to productivity and the impact that that had on fiscal revenue. The Office for Budget R…”

“That is not entirely correct. The £16 billion is the result of a productivity downgrade. Because of higher wage inflation and price inflation, there were also higher tax revenues, but higher inflation is not a good thing, because, of course, that erodes the spending power of Government. I would not characterise it as, …”

“Of course, we wanted to reduce that inflation, which is exactly what we did, as the deputy governor of the Bank said to you yesterday, with 0.4 to 0.5 percentage points off inflation next year.”

“Yes, and—”

“I said in my speech on 4 November that everyone would have to contribute. We were able to keep that contribution as low as we did by using a range of more progressive taxes such as the high value council tax, the gambling tax and tax on dividends on property.”

“Of course there are always other options available. There are a number of policies leading up to the Budget that we cost. As the Prime Minister has been clear—”

“Those were the two options that were available. As the Prime Minister has subsequently said, we did look at whether we needed to increase the rates of income tax, given our concerns around the forecast and particularly the productivity downgrade, which took £16 billion off in terms of revenues in the final year of the …”

“Shall I finish answering your question, Dame Harriett? You have asked about economic growth. You will know that in the spring, the OBR upgraded their growth forecast. It was the biggest upgrade to growth from a non-fiscal measure that the OBR, in its 15-year history now, has ever made. That reflected the changes we mad…”

“It was not an “off-the-record briefing”; it was a leak.”

“I am absolutely categorical that that was not an authorised briefing. It was incredibly damaging and frustrating. That is why we have a leak inquiry. It was not “briefing” that was signed off by me or any of my Ministers or officials. It was unacceptable. That is why there is a leak inquiry going on.”

“And of course it is right that it looks at all those people. That is not suggesting that we think any of those people are responsible, but everybody who had access to this information should rightly be part of that leak inquiry.”

“I do not want to give you a number without being able to check.”

“On 4 November, I gave a speech where I set out my priorities for the Budget: to cut the cost of living, to cut NHS waiting lists and to cut the debt and the deficit. I was clear in that speech that I wanted to build more resilient public finances, with the headroom to withstand global turbulence. As you saw when I deli…”

“Yes, I agree with the permanent secretary.”

“That is exactly—no, no, no. That is not what I said. Sorry, Dame Harriett—”

“Thank you very much, Dame Meg. It is wonderful to be here giving evidence to your Select Committee again. First, I thank Richard Hughes for his service. You will have seen his letter of resignation and my response to it; I thank Richard for his leadership of the OBR, as well as his distinguished public service both at …”

“I met Tom Josephs and David Miles earlier this week, along with the permanent secretary, to thank them for their service and for continuing in their roles. It is unlikely that we will have a new chair for the spring forecast, because we obviously need to go through a rigorous process, but they are happy and confident t…”

“I think it is most likely to be early in the new year, as it is only a week or so until the Christmas recess, but we will put it out as soon as we can.”

“Yes—but don’t contradict what I have just said.”

“We have protected the capital budget, which is really important for improving the productivity of public services. We have also agreed with Departments £14 billion-worth of efficiency savings. We are tracking those closely, and we are delivering against those targets. We have set out further efficiency targets in the B…”