Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sam Tarry and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 6th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sam Tarry (Ilford South) (Lab)]

8. If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of removing the cap on bankers’ bonuses on the financial sector.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Jeremy Hunt)]

Removing the bankers’ bonus cap was a decision made by the independent Prudential Regulation Authority, which has long said that the cap was completely ineffective; it did not limit pay or make banks safer.

[Sam Tarry]

The cap on bankers’ bonuses might have been a great newspaper headline, but it did little to tackle the City’s excesses. Financial institutions quickly changed remuneration packages and structures so that risk takers still receive substantial pay-offs, sometimes even taking them through offshore mechanisms. Does the Chancellor agree that what we need is enhanced regulation to mitigate excessive risk taking in the square mile? That could require, beyond merely capping bonuses, a move toward an alignment of interests focused on the form of bonus payments, share allocations and deferred amounts, and robust clawback mechanisms for those who have behaved maliciously, in order to deter misconduct in the square mile more effectively?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I suspect that when the hon. Gentleman tabled his question, he was not expecting that the biggest supporter of abolishing the bankers’ bonus cap was not the Chancellor but the shadow Chancellor. I hear what he says, and indeed those are some of the reasons we abolished it, because it was not working. If Labour is going to change its mind on that policy, may I ask—just to take a totally random example—when will it change its mind about the planned £28 billion of additional borrowing?

Autumn Statement

Debate between Sam Tarry and Jeremy Hunt

Wednesday 22nd November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

Because if we want to get to net zero, we are going to have to have more renewable energy and, unfortunately for the hon. Gentleman and for me, there are days when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.

[Sam Tarry (Ilford South) (Lab)]

We have the lowest investment in the G7; on the Government’s own figures, it has fallen further and further. Currently, public sector investment is scheduled to fall by £14 billion in real terms over the next five years. Without serious investment in public services, we cannot hope to improve productivity, which the Chancellor spoke about today. We cannot just demand that people go back to work, and work harder and harder to compensate for this. We need £10 billion to match the OECD’s average public investment annual spend as a share of GDP. I would like to hear from the Chancellor why he has not taken the opportunity today to align ourselves with the rest of the G7?

[Jeremy Hunt]

Let me gently remind the hon. Gentleman that business investment has grown by more since 2010 than it grew under the Labour Government; we have the second highest growth in the G7, with ours faster than any country’s except America.

Economic Update

Debate between Sam Tarry and Jeremy Hunt

Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

As I have said—I am happy to repeat it—all these decisions will be taken through the prism of the impact on the most vulnerable people in society.

[Sam Tarry (Ilford South) (Lab)]

Many constituents in Ilford South will be very glad that the last Labour Prime Minister had the foresight to make the Bank of England independent, given the mini-Budget a few weeks ago almost tanked six pension funds in the UK. What I would like to know from our new Chancellor today is what he is going to do—at least one more is still at risk—to reassure pensioners in Ilford South, and the millions of people across the country who are not only angry but frightened, that he will do something concrete to shore up pension funds not just over the next few weeks but over the next few years.

[Jeremy Hunt]

We have had very decisive action from the Bank of England to do exactly that, and I hope the hon. Gentleman is encouraged by what the Governor of the Bank of England said today about his belief that he has largely solved those issues.