Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Adrian Bailey Excerpts
Tuesday 29th January 2019

(5 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Hammond of Runnymede Portrait Mr Hammond
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My hon. Friend is right. The public finances have reached a turning point. This is the first time in 17 years that we are not borrowing for day-to-day expenditure. Debt has peaked and now begun to fall—its first sustained fall in a generation—and the last thing we want is for the hard work of the British people to be thrown away by the incompetence of a Labour Government delivering higher debt and higher interest payments, which they always do.

Adrian Bailey Portrait Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)
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The Bank of England has forecast a range of negative impacts on the economy from Britain’s leaving the EU, with or without a deal. What assessment has the Chancellor made of the impact of these on the public sector deficit and his current public spending plans?

Lord Hammond of Runnymede Portrait Mr Hammond
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The Government have made a cross-departmental assessment of the medium to long-term effects of different Brexit outcomes, which the Government have published. The Bank of England, because it is better equipped to do so, has made an assessment of the short-term impacts of leaving the EU under different scenarios, which it has published.