Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Virendra Sharma Excerpts
Tuesday 24th January 2012

(12 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Danny Alexander Portrait Danny Alexander
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Ministerial salaries were cut by 5% and then frozen for the whole of this Parliament. As Chief Secretary, I now personally sign off any new pay above £142,000, the equivalent of the Prime Minister’s pay. That is a vital deterrent to the cycle of ever higher pay at the top of the public sector—so much so that in central Government alone the number of people paid more than £150,000 has dropped by 55 since May last year. When applications come in, I can and do reject them if I think they are too high. In fact, since May 2010 83 like-for-like cases have sought my approval. Pay was lowered in 45 of those cases and frozen in a further 23, saving more than £1 million a year for the taxpayer, including a £100,000 cut in the pay for the new chief executive of Royal Mail.

Virendra Sharma Portrait Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)
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11. What assessment he has made of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s most recent estimate of the size of the deficit in 2015.

Chloe Smith Portrait The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Miss Chloe Smith)
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The OBR forecast in November that borrowing in 2015-16 would be £53 billion, which is 2.9% of gross domestic product. That compares with £156 billion last year and £127 billion this financial year.

Virendra Sharma Portrait Mr Sharma
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I thank the Economic Secretary for answering the question. Can she tell us why the Government are now forecast to borrow £37 billion more than the more balanced plan Labour set out before the election, despite the pain of £40 billion more spending cuts and tax rises?

Chloe Smith Portrait Miss Smith
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This Government are engaged in a credible deficit reduction plan. I would like to hear the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues tell us what their plan is and whether it veers towards credibility or the policies of the delusional left.