Jeremy Hunt
Main Page: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)Department Debates - View all Jeremy Hunt's debates with the HM Treasury
(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Rachel Reeves
My hon. Friend is right, but I would say it is worse than that in Scotland, where there is the legacy of two awful Governments: the Conservatives made people poorer, while the SNP Government fail to back our nuclear sector, which could deliver cheaper bills for people in Scotland.
Sir Jeremy Hunt (Godalming and Ash) (Con)
Could I gently ask the Chancellor to be less partisan at a time of crisis? If she brings before the House difficult measures that are right for the country, she will have the support of the whole House, but if she is partisan, she will not. I actually rise to support her basic instinct, which is for targeted rather than universal support. Four years ago, energy bills were heading to £4,000. We are at nothing like that now, and we do not know what the oil price will be next week, let alone this winter. Although we gave support to households and families last time by increasing borrowing, with her support, we cannot react to every single economic shock by further increasing our national debt. Will she confirm that when she comes to the House to announce targeted support, it will be fully funded in her Budget and not funded by increasing our national debt yet again?
Rachel Reeves
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that question. When he became Chancellor, it was on the back of lots of promises that there would be no support for energy bills. He and others recognised that that position was not sustainable, but work had not been done on how to introduce a targeted system, so the choice was a binary one between blanket support or no support. The right hon. Gentleman took the right approach then by ensuring that people’s energy bills did not go through the roof; however, a targeted approach would be more appropriate, because under the previous approach, the top third of families got more than a third of the benefit. That is not right or sensible—all it does is drive up inflation, interest rates and taxes in the future. It is not the fault of the former Chancellor that that approach was taken, but we are using this period, when energy prices are actually falling because of the approach I took in the Budget, to ensure that we are in a position to take a targeted approach in the autumn.