Lord Stoddart of Swindon
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Lord Stoddart of Swindon Excerpts(10 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Newby
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. I completely agree with him.
Lord Stoddart of Swindon (Ind Lab)
Will the noble Lord confirm that the gross cost to the taxpayer is not £55 million per day but £18 billion every year? If we were not paying that amount in exchanges, would not the Government be able to reduce the deficit on expenditure very much more quickly than they intend to at the present time?
Lord Newby
My Lords, the net payment over the past six years has been about £34.8 billion. This equates to less than 1% of our total public expenditure over that period. It is a very substantial amount, but, as I have now said several times, you have to set against that amount all the economic and other benefits, including those mentioned by my noble friend Lord Ashdown, that the UK derives.