Oral Answers to Questions

Luke Evans Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Richard Holden (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

1. What the annual cost to the public purse is of a 0.1% increase in the cost of servicing Government debt.

[Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)]

9. What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of recent trends in the level of interest on Government debt.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

17. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the autumn Budget 2024 on levels of debt interest spending.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rachel Reeves]

Yesterday’s PwC report shows that the UK is the second most attractive place in the world to invest for global CEOs—it is the first time in 28 years that we have been in that position in the league table. And the International Monetary Fund forecast on Friday that the UK will be the fastest-growing major economy in Europe next year.

[Dr Evans]

Last time I raised the markets’ concerns about debt with the Chancellor, she told me to “get real.” What is real is that the cost of debt interest is over £10 billion. What is real are the three choices she has: to increase taxes on people and businesses in Earl Shilton, Burbage and across the country; to cut services for people in Hinckley, Donisthorpe and across the country; or to borrow on the country’s credit card. Will she now be real with the public and tell them which of the three it is going to be?

[Rachel Reeves]

We inherited a high amount of debt from the previous Government, and we have to pay interest costs on that debt. The forecast I set out in the Budget in October showed that debt falling to a sustainable level. As I said, the OBR forecast will be published on 26 March, and I will make a statement at that time.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gareth Davies (Grantham and Bourne) (Con)]

Never in doubt, Mr Speaker.

May I welcome the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, the hon. Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell), to his place? The removal of investment allowances from our domestic oil and gas industry is strangling domestic supplies at a time when our storage levels are depleted. Labour’s ideologically driven, unachievable obsession with decarbonising the grid by 2030 might be good news for Chinese renewables manufacturers, but it is bad news for British households. Is it not the case that the only growth that we will see from Labour’s energy policy is in the amount that people pay for their energy bills, or can the Minister stand up now and commit—just as Labour did during the general election campaign—to cutting energy bills by £300?

[Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)]

Get real!

[Torsten Bell]

I think that remark was directed at the hon. Member in a previous life.

We have committed to 100% first year allowances and to maintaining that going forward, but unless we deliver secure energy, generated at home through cheap renewables, there is no energy security to be had in the years ahead.