Public Finances: Borrowing Costs

Baroness Kramer Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. She is absolutely right that growth was one of the biggest failures of the previous Government. We are determined to turn that around. She is also correct to say that there should be no doubt of the Government’s commitment to economic stability and sound public finances. That is why meeting the fiscal rules is absolutely non-negotiable. I am not going to pre-empt future fiscal events or spending reviews now, but the Chancellor has been absolutely clear that she would not repeat the likes of the October Budget and is focused on growing the economy so that people in every corner of the UK see an improvement in living standards. We have set very tough fiscal rules, tougher than those of the previous Government, which we meet two years early. We have set the envelope for the second phase of the spending review, which we will stick to. That will involve tough choices on spending, but they are choices we are prepared to make, and our reform agenda will be central to improving services going forward.

[Baroness Kramer (LD)]

My Lords, the Minister used the phrase “meeting the fiscal rules is non-negotiable”. A few minutes ago in the other place, my colleague the honourable Member for Wokingham asked for a similar reassurance that promised investment in the NHS and care is also non-negotiable. The reply, I hope inadvertently, was somewhat soft and went no stronger than commitment. Can the Minister use the term “non-negotiable”, because we need reassurance that there will be no scaling back of the committed investment in the NHS and care?