Speeches by Reeves.

“There would be numerous impacts if we increased borrowing and were not able to deliver economic and fiscal stability. The first is that the national debt, which is already almost the size of our economy, would grow larger still, and that would increase the servicing costs of that debt, which are already £105.3 billion …”

“Yes, and your constituents in Glasgow and mine in Leeds West and Pudsey do not need the OBR or their MP to tell them that, because it is what happened a few years ago. The cost of borrowing for businesses and families went through the roof, uncertainty was all around us, and it constrained the ability of our economy to…”

“In the Budget last year, we increased two broad types of tax. We increased national insurance on business, which we have already discussed, and we also increased taxes on the most wealthy. The reforms to the non-dom tax status will bring in £12 billion during the course of this Parliament. VAT on private schools will b…”

“Yes. It was consistent both with the Green Paper and with the Secretary of State’s statement to the House of Commons.”

“Yes!”

“On the issue of the green belt, we are very keen, on those areas that we call grey belt, to have more development. We are also, in the next few months, going to announce the outcome of the review that the Deputy Prime Minister commissioned on new towns. A number of proposals have come forward for brand-new new towns, a…”

“That £2 billion is a down payment on the spending review. We wanted to announce it early, not because that is the total sum of the money that we will make available in the spending review but, as I said to Rachel Blake, because we wanted to give the sector certainty that the money would be there into the new financial …”

“We absolutely need to learn lessons from the past on failed and poor procurement, and on cost overruns. That is why we are determined to do things differently. It is why I am working closely with the Defence Secretary to get value for money for our defence spending. It is also why we are looking, too, at more innovativ…”

“We might not be inside the European Union, but we are very much inside Europe. We have a shared objective with our allies in and outside the European Union—there are other European nations that are not in the European Union who want to be part of defending our continent. Certainly, our allies in the European Union reco…”

“Look, we have just set out the funding to get to 2.5% of GDP, which is through a reduction in the international development budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP. You can see in the numbers that all that money is being redirected into defence. That is the right priority, given the challenges that we face. We are achieving th…”

“We are very carefully reducing that spending. Again, you will see in the numbers that we set out last week that it does not just drop off in one year; it is a £500 million reduction this year, increased in subsequent years, because we are not just going to leave programmes high and dry. That would be an irresponsible t…”

“Thanks very much for that question. In the Mansion House speech that I gave in November, we set out reforms on advice and guidance. At the moment, sadly—”

“Well, actually, we have speeded up the process, but would I like to do it quicker? Yes. It is really important. At the moment, advice and guidance is the preserve of the wealthiest, and that should not be the case, because people who perhaps need the advice and guidance most are those who make quite big sacrifices to s…”

“I know you have a background in this area. So we are making those reforms. We are also looking, as you say, at making sure that the ISA system works well for savers, a bit like we are trying to do on pensions in making capital markets work better for the UK. The EST, Emma Reynolds, will be very happy to give you more e…”

“I am not going to give a timetable for that at the moment, Dame Harriett. I recognise the importance of cash for a lot of people. Already, you can save in a savings account, and some of that—the interest on that—is tax-free. We also have the ISA limits. I do want to look at the balance, because I think sometimes it is …”

“We do not want to rush it, because we want to make sure that we understand people’s different needs, but do I think that reform would be worthwhile. That is what we are looking at at the moment.”

“We will soon publish more information on his work. It is important work. He has only been in post for a couple of months.”

“The legislation will face scrutiny in both Houses of Parliament, and rightly so. We have been very clear about the precise elements of the package. [Interruption.]”

“It is not in these documents.”

“We can also send you details of who the EST has met.”