Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Thomson Excerpts

Tuesday 20th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Richard Thomson (Gordon) (SNP)]

12. What recent assessment he has made of the potential effects of his policies on inflation on the cost of living.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Jeremy Hunt)]

We know the pain that households up and down the country are going through as a result of the cost of living pressures at the moment, and have announced one of the largest support packages in Europe, worth around £3,300 per household this year and last.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jeremy Hunt]

I am afraid that I do not buy this Brexit narrative from the SNP. Food price inflation has been around 20% in Germany, Sweden, Portugal and Poland in recent times, so this is not a UK-specific issue. We are all dealing with the consequences of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic, and we are all tackling it with one central focus, which is to bring down inflation as our overriding priority.

[Richard Thomson]

The former US Treasury chief said earlier this month that Brexit was a “historic economic error”, and described the UK Government’s economic policy as having been

“substantially flawed for some years”.

Will the Chancellor finally face up to what the rest of the world can see, and admit that leaving the world’s largest single market has not only had a significant impact on inflation, but a deleterious impact on household finances across the country?