Public Spending: Inheritance

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Robert Jenrick

Monday 29th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Robert Jenrick (Newark) (Con)]

The Chancellor is like a dodgy car mechanic. She says she has done all the searches, she gives you a fixed price, you hand in your car keys and then, a few weeks later, she has found all these new problems. The price has doubled, but it is too late—you have given her your car and you both know that this was her plan all along. Trust and credibility are critical to a Chancellor. Why has she been so careless and so quick to throw hers away?

[Rachel Reeves]

If the right hon. Gentleman has any chance of fixing the mess that his previous Government made, he might want to start with an apology.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Robert Jenrick

Tuesday 2nd July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Robert Jenrick]

Clearly, it is not possible to progress this matter until we have greater certainty about our exit from the European Union. Those Members of this House who want to see this matter progressed should be voting to leave at every opportunity, as we on the Government side have done. The important thing to point out on regional disparities is that this Government are investing far more than the previous Labour Government. In fact, £430 million a week more in real terms is being invested by this Government than under the previous Labour Government on infrastructure in all parts of the UK.

[Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)]

4. What fiscal steps the Government are taking to support the northern powerhouse.

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Robert Jenrick)]

The Government are supporting the northern powerhouse through devolution deals for, among others, Manchester, Liverpool, the West Midlands and, most recently, North of Tyne, as well as through over £13 billion of investment in better transport across the north. In addition, we have invested over £3 billion from the local growth fund in the region since 2015, and we committed at the Budget to announce a renewed northern powerhouse strategy later this year.

[Rachel Reeves]

It is quite an achievement for the Minister to get up and say that without any sense of irony whatsoever. The truth is that we have had the incredibly disappointing news this week that Pacer trains in the north of England will not be removed by the end of this year, as previously promised. Despite the warm words about the northern powerhouse, the truth is that since 2014 spending on transport in the south of England has risen twice as fast as in the north of England. Will the Minister use the spending review as an opportunity to rectify these imbalances and finally give meaning to those words, “the northern powerhouse”?