Economic Update

Steve McCabe Excerpts

Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

It will not have been a secret to my right hon. Friend that I am sympathetic to that, because I campaigned for it very loudly and visibly when I was a Back Bencher, but all these things have to be sustainable. Any increase in Defence spending has to be an increase that we can sustain over many years. I agree with him entirely that the duty of a Government is to provide security for the population, in all senses of the word.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

Does the Chancellor’s compassionate conservatism extend to raising the minimum income component of pension credit, or is he prepared to let the poorest pensioners in the land be sacrificed on the altar of Trussonomics?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I would gently say to the hon. Gentleman that, while I completely understand how important it is to support our most vulnerable pensioners, what they need more than anything is a strong economy that can pay for the support that we would want to give them.