Rachel Reeves
Main Page: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)Department Debates - View all Rachel Reeves's debates with the HM Treasury
(8 years, 2 months ago)
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Greg Hands
I thank my hon. Friend for his support for our budget reduction efforts. I have had no such discussions so far, nor any submissions from those on the Opposition Front Bench. I have, however, received a submission from Ed Balls’s former head of policy, Karim Palant, who said of the shadow Chancellor’s changing position on the charter:
“This kind of chaos less than a month into the job is the kind of blow even significant political figures struggle to recover from.”
Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)
I agree that we need to reduce the debt and the deficit, but with interest rates at record lows and the International Monetary Fund forecasting that public and private investment will fall from 30th to 31st in the OECD league table, should we not be taking advantage of low interest rates to invest in our creaking infrastructure, airport capacity, road and rail, and flood defences?
Greg Hands
I welcome the hon. Lady’s support for deficit reduction. It is good to have her back. I must remind her, however, that in the last Parliament she voted against virtually every single deficit reduction measure the Government took. We have a big programme of infrastructure investment worth £100 billion over the course of this Parliament, which includes transport infrastructure and other measures that will help her constituents and people across the country.