Economy and Jobs
Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Lord Mann(7 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Hammond
I have not got to it yet, but the hon. Gentleman will hear an elaboration of our record since 2010 in just a moment.
I was talking about the 1970s, a decade when the lights literally went out, when inflation was in double digits, the country was crippled by strikes and bully-boy union power, and the Labour Government were forced to go cap-in-hand to the IMF for a bailout. The pretence of fiscal credibility is gone from Labour’s offer. The new pretence is that the cost of its spending spree would fall on someone else—the rich, corporates and foreign investors—but it would not. The cost would fall, as it always does when Labour gets its hands on the British economy, on ordinary people trying to get on with their lives.
If the Shadow Chancellor would put down “Das Kapital” for a few minutes and read an elementary economics textbook, he would understand why. Take Labour’s proposed corporation tax hike. The IFS analysis is pretty straightforward. The right hon. Gentleman quoted the IFS, but it said that
“much of the cost is likely to be passed to workers through lower wages or consumers through higher prices”.
The IFS is not alone. The shadow Chancellor’s predecessor, Mr Ed Balls, agrees. He says:
“The argument from this Labour manifesto that only the rich will pay, I don’t think it stacks up. From opposition, you can say, ‘Don’t worry, someone else will pay’–but you can’t do that in government.”
He might have added, “not if you seriously aspire to be in government”.
Mr Hammond
I will in just a moment.
Here is the inconvenient truth for the Labour party about corporation tax. We cut corporation tax to the lowest rate of any large developed economy and two things happened. The private sector created 3.4 million new jobs—something, by the way, that the Labour party used to care about in the old days—and in the process we raised an additional £18 billion in corporation tax to fund our vital public services. That did not happen by magic. Lower corporate taxes attract more investment, more investment creates more jobs and more profits, and more profits deliver higher taxes. It is not very complicated.
John Mann
As the Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed to the Treasury Committee following the Chancellor’s recent Budget, all his tax projections are predicated on an extra 1 million new immigrants entering the country and working over the next five years. Can he confirm that that is still his plan?
Mr Hammond
It is the OBR that makes the projections and it has been quite transparent about what its assumptions are about both trade and immigration.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Lord Mann(11 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Philip Hammond
As my hon. Friend says, I am delighted to confirm that a British-piloted F-35B—the short take-off and vertical landing version of the F-35 aircraft—has completed a successful landing on USS Wasp, which was, I think, off the coast of Virginia. We have a programme of embedded UK pilots training with US navy marines on those aircraft. Progress is good on that programme, and we expect the first squadron of aircraft to come to the UK fully formed in 2018, with pilots who have been trained and prepared in the United States.
John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab)
Post-conflict Commonwealth applicant Burundi desperately needs assistance in rehabilitating soldiers and ex-combatants from the civil war, including disabled and child soldiers. Will the Secretary of State use his good offices to come up with a scheme with the Department for International Development gainfully to employ some of the great expertise that our ex-service personnel, who are about to increase in number, could use to assist them?
Mr Hammond
I will certainly talk to my right hon. Friend the International Development Secretary and see whether DFID could look at that. I will also ask our own conflict prevention and reconstruction unit to consider whether there is anything that the UK military could do to help in that situation.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Lord Mann(13 years ago)
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John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab)
11. When he expects UK troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.
The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond)
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister told the House that UK force levels in Afghanistan will reduce from 9,500 to 9,000 by the end of 2012. By the end of 2014, the security transition will be complete and British troops will no longer be in a combat role. The UK and the international community are committed to Afghanistan for the long term, and a number of UK troops will remain after 2014, including in training roles at the UK-led Afghan national army officer academy.
Mr Hammond
We have a clear plan for the completion of the mission in Afghanistan, which involves transitioning lead security responsibility to the ever more competent Afghan national security forces. That will be done over the next three years, resulting in the withdrawal of the overwhelming majority of our forces by the end of 2014 and the ending of our combat role. That is the position that most people in this country would want to see: a measured and properly controlled winding down of our involvement that protects the legacy that we have won with so much blood and treasure.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Lord Mann(14 years ago)
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Mr Hammond
The faster rate of fare increases on Southeastern is, as my hon. Friend knows, related to the introduction of the high-speed Javelin trains, which have managed to continue running very effectively during the current period of weather disruption. We are reviewing value for money on the rail network as a whole. Sir Roy McNulty is conducting that review, and I will publish his interim findings shortly, and a final report in April next year.
John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Philip Hammond)
Since I last answered Transport Questions, I have confirmed that Thameslink will go ahead in its entirety and announced £900 million-worth of rail electrification projects and 2,100 new rail carriages. I have also announced the sale of a 30-year concession on High Speed 1 for £2.1 billion.
John Mann
Since the last Transport questions, I have corrected the Minister with responsibility for roads: there have been 27 collisions at Elkesley on the A1 in the past five years. When will the Minister press the button to start this scheme, which is designed and ready to go, so that we can save lives by building the bridge at Elkesley?
Mr Hammond
The hon. Gentleman knows that road schemes are evaluated on a cost-benefit basis. Accident figures are one of the factors taken into account and built into the analysis, but we will always look at the cost-benefit analysis—the overall benefits that the scheme will bring, compared with the costs—and all schemes have to be looked at fairly and objectively in the light of the limited funding available.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Lord Mann(14 years, 1 month ago)
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Mr Hammond
As the right hon. Gentleman knows, Eurostar services are operated by a commercial company that makes decisions on the basis of its commercial best interest. I think the answer that he should be looking for is more competition and more operators on the line. I am very pleased to hear that Deutsche Bahn intends to start operating services through the tunnel to London. The more operators there are, the more likely they are to seek additional niche markets and to provide additional station stops.
John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab)
8. What recent representations he has received on road safety at Elkesley, Nottinghamshire.