Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 14 May 2026 King’s Speech
"My Lords, I thank His Majesty for his gracious Speech and all noble Lords for their thoughtful contributions today. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Anderson on her excellent opening speech, and it is now a great privilege to close this debate. It is nearly two years since the first …..." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"My Lords, I am grateful for the questions and comments from the noble Baronesses, Lady Neville-Rolfe and Lady Kramer. The noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, started her comments by focusing on the IMF’s revised forecasts that were published last week and that we discussed briefly in this House then. As both …..." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. We are repairing the public finances. At the time of the spring forecast, borrowing was set to fall more over this Parliament than in any other G7 economy. We are now borrowing below the G7 average, something that was not …..." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"I have the greatest respect for my noble friend Lord Robertson but I disagree with him. Looking at the decisions that the Prime Minister and Chancellor have taken, we are delivering the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War. As I have said already, and I am …..." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"It was estimated at the time to be costing us some 4%, subsequently estimated to be 8%, of GDP, so he has put up massive tariff barriers with our biggest partner, which is not something that is in favour of free trade. He talks about it being tariff free, but …..." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"Of course there are consequences; I agree completely with the noble Lord. He talks of a hypothetical of the defence investment plan not happening. It will happen and, as I have said already, it will be published in due course...." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"No, and I disagree with the noble Lord, as I am sure I do on many issues. He talks about trade restrictions. He obviously championed a Brexit which put up massive trade restrictions with our nearest trading partners—..." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"I do not have a crystal ball and I cannot look ahead to everything the Government will be doing, but I can tell the noble Lord, as I said to his noble friend, that we are reforming the welfare system...." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"I agree with the noble Lord on that point. He is far more expert in these matters than me and was in the Treasury through many more crises than I have been, so he has great experience in this matter. He is absolutely right that the IMF showed last week …..." Lord Livermore - View Speech
"I do agree with what my noble friend said. Already, even before this crisis, the damage that Brexit was doing to our economy was apparent. As I say, at the time of Brexit it was estimated it would cost about 4 percentage points of GDP. That has now risen to …..." Lord Livermore - View Speech