Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Gwynne

Tuesday 7th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right: violence reduction units reduce crime and save lives. I want to thank him, because he was one of the first colleagues who, ahead of the Budget, brought to my attention how impressive the results are. As a result, I was able to make it a national policy in the Budget.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

T7. Many of those campaigning for justice in the contaminated blood scandal will have been encouraged by the reporting in The Sunday Times over the weekend. Given that time is of the essence, will the Chancellor please indicate by which date the promises will be fulfilled?

[Jeremy Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to say that the Government are taking this issue very seriously, and we completely understand that speed is of the essence. It is now only a matter of days before the report will be published; we have always said that we want to publish our response very quickly after that and I assure the hon. Gentleman that we will not hang around.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Gwynne

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

I am delighted that my hon. Friend welcomed the freezing of fuel duty, which means that over the period for which it has been frozen, the average motorist will have saved £200. There is a specific reason why I wanted to continue to freeze it this year: combined with the extension of the energy price guarantee, it will reduce CPI inflation by 0.7% in a year in which headline inflation is still over 10%.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

How is it fair that the Government are picking the pockets of working people through frozen income tax thresholds while at the same time allowing the super-rich non-doms to effectively opt out of paying tax in this country, which is costing us £3.2 billion this year?

[Jeremy Hunt]

Let me remind the hon. Gentleman what we have done for people on low incomes. Because of the increase in the income tax and national insurance thresholds which was completed last year, those on the average wage of £28,000 pay £1,000 less in tax and national insurance than they would have paid at 2010 levels—that is a tax cut that his party opposed at each and every stage.

Economic Update

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Gwynne

Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

I absolutely salute my hon. Friend for thinking about the needs of families having to pay mortgages, which have an enormous impact on their finances. As I have learned in my short time in this job, Chancellors never comment on what mortgage rates or interest rates should be, but I absolutely want to make sure, in so far as the Government can influence it, we make sure that they are held down as low as possible.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

I will be a bit more generous. I genuinely welcome the re-emphasis on market stability, sound economic finance and ensuring that our country genuinely has an economic policy that is not going to frighten the markets.

The Chancellor says that he is reviewing all tax and spending before the Budget, and he wants to ensure that he takes communities with him. May I impress on him the very real damage that was done in lots of communities across the country that one might call red wall seats, although not all of them voted for the Conservatives in 2019, as a result of the cuts to local government—60p in the pound. Local government cannot take that level of cuts again. May I ask him at least to consider ensuring that those communities are protected?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I am not making any commitments on individual areas of any tax or spend, but yes, I absolutely understand the pressures faced in local government.