Tax Increases

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

The noble Baroness knows that I will not comment on specific financial market movements, but I will write to her on stablecoin if that is okay with her.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, we have just heard that the benefits system is broken. Can the Minister remind us who broke it? Is this not a case of having to clear up the mess that they left?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right to point out the mess that we inherited and why so many difficult decisions had to be taken. He is right to point to the mess they left us in the welfare system; I think we had the highest proportion of people not working and were the only country in the G7 where worklessness had not returned to where it was pre pandemic. We also had to clear up a mess in the public finances, which is why, as he rightly says, we have had to take so many difficult decisions.