Debates between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Fiona Mactaggart during the 2015-2017 Parliament

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Fiona Mactaggart
Tuesday 17th January 2017

(7 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Fiona Mactaggart Portrait Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab)
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13. What assessment he has made of the effect of recent trends in the value of the pound on the economy; and if he will make a statement.

Lord Hammond of Runnymede Portrait The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Philip Hammond)
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The Government do not comment on currency movements and we do not target an exchange rate, but I will tell the House that the pound has spiked in the last few minutes while the Prime Minister has been speaking. The vote to leave the EU has obviously caused some uncertainty in the movements of financial markets. More generally, the fundamentals of our economy over the last couple of years have been strong.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I think what the Chancellor means is that he does not comment on currency movements unless he does.

Fiona Mactaggart Portrait Fiona Mactaggart
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But is it not the case that No. 10’s office briefed that the pound would fall as a result of the Prime Minister’s remarks today? Did it do that in a cynical attempt to get the soundbite that the Chancellor has just sought to achieve?

Lord Hammond of Runnymede Portrait Mr Hammond
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I draw a distinction between providing the House with information and commenting on that information—I would not dream of doing the latter. The other thing I would not dream of commenting on is any operations that No. 10 might undertake, which are well beyond my pay grade.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Fiona Mactaggart
Tuesday 29th November 2016

(8 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Hammond of Runnymede Portrait Mr Hammond
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Public R and D funding will take two principal forms. There will be further funding to the science base in our universities, and there will be funding through Innovate UK, which is accessible by companies to support innovation. We already have an excellent base in basic science. What we need to do now is to up our game in innovation and the application of that science.

Fiona Mactaggart Portrait Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab)
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T7. A feature of the modern gig economy is that more and more people are sticking together mini jobs, in most of which they earn below the national insurance threshold. HMRC manages to add together that money to tax it, but it does not manage to add together that money to make sure that those people have pensions. What is the Treasury going to do to make sure that older women, in particular, get access to pensions when they have mini jobs?