Speeches by Yang.

“To add to the point about capital, Mr Osborne, you mentioned in an interview that you regret the amount of capital cuts that you made during that period. You just mentioned that you attempted to course correct. Why was there the attempt to cut capital spending at a time when interest rates were almost zero, so you woul…”

“You mentioned what is in the political textbooks: the political incentive to spend down the whole headroom, in effect handing over to a new Government without any rainy-day reserves in case of turbulence. Under that logic, every five years there would be a running down of headroom, then a huge Budget, then a running-do…”

“Sir Vince, is there anything you want to add to that description?”

“Mr. Osborne, you mentioned at the start of that answer that the Treasury overruled you. Could you go a bit more into the detail of that?”

“Mr Osborne, you mentioned that it is more difficult to raise than to lower taxes, and earlier that the Government are, to some extent, a victim of the low headroom—£10 billion in headroom, which is the same level as under Jeremy Hunt, post-2022, and a lower headroom than before the pandemic. Do you feel that it was irr…”

“You both mentioned the mansion tax and revaluing some council tax bands, which was a coalition Government proposal from back in 2012. I am curious about the political economy of that. What were the difficulties in discussing that within the coalition and getting that enacted? What do you think would be the challenges n…”

“We can go into many different regrets in that stage of my life, but I was studying economics during the coalition Government and I want to return to the topic of growth that we discussed at the beginning. At the time, the accepted orthodoxy of the economics department was that a desire to run a surplus budget at a time…”

“At the time did the Treasury, which I presume had the similar mainstream orthodox view of macroeconomics that academic economists had, warn you that attempting to run a contractionary Budget would delay the recovery in itself?”

“By 2015-16, central bankers were also coming out not to directly criticise but hint at problems with this monetary fiscal settlement. Central banks had been trying to lean against the impact of a contractionary Budget. For example, in 2016 Mark Carney warned that the Bank on its own could not lift growth off for the UK…”

“Would you agree with Professor Stewart that we should see a more fundamental reform of the benefit system, so that we do not need to have this uprating conversation every few Treasury Committees?”

“We have just discussed the benefit cap and the impact that has on the poorest families. Dr Cribb, in the IFS evidence that we have received, there is a statement saying, “But the benefit cap would wipe out the gains”—of reversing the two-child limit—“for some children in the very poorest families.” That is talking abou…”

“What would you like to see instead?”

“There has been a lot of speculation about alternatives to scrapping the limit, including different ways of tapering or adjusting the limit, which would save small amounts of money in different ways, but they might reduce the impact. Do you want to speak to the viability of those alternatives and whether they are cost e…”

“Finally, what are your range of costings for removing both the two-child limit and the benefit cap?”

“So over time, the number of families affected by it will simply increase, unless it is changed in itself?”

“Just to start, I have a very quick yes/no question to summarise a lot of what we just discussed. Do you believe that lifting the two-child limit is the most effective way of reducing child poverty with the amount of money that it would take? I am thinking about its cost-effectiveness.”

“And the cap itself does not move automatically over time?”

“Does anyone else want to come in?”

“If the objective is to make sure that child poverty is lower at the end of this Parliament than the beginning, do any of those halfway houses get us there, Dr Cribb?”

“For example, yes.”