Schools, safer streets. The british peoples priorities are this governments priorities. Mr speaker, todays Spending Review strengthens the united kingdoms place in the world. This country has always and will always be open and outward looking, leading in solving the Worlds Toughest problems. But during a domestic fiscal emergency, when we need to prioritise our limited resources on jobs and Public Services, sticking rigidly to spending 0. 7 of our National Income on overseas aid is difficult to justify to the british people. Especially when we are seeing the highest peacetime levels of borrowing on record. I have listened with Great Respect to those who have argued passionately to attain this target. But at a time of unprecedented crisis, government must make tough choices. I want to reassure the house we will continue to protect the worlds poorest. Spending the equivalent of 0. 5 of oui spending the equivalent of 0. 5 of our National Income on overseas aid in 2021, allocating £10 billion at this Spending Review. And our intention is to return to 0. 7 when the fiscal situation allows. Based on the latest 0ecd data, the uk would remain the second highest aid donor in the g7, higher than france, italy, japan, canada and the us. And 0. 5 is also considerably more than the 29 countries on the 0ecds Development Assistance committee who averaged just 0. 38 . 0verseas aid is of course only one of the ways we play our role in the world. The Prime Minister has announced over £24 billion of investment in defence over the next four years, the biggest sustained increase in 30 yea rs. Biggest sustained increase in 30 years. Allowing us to provide security, not just for years. Allowing us to provide security, notjust for our years. Allowing us to provide security, not just for our country but around the world. We are investing more in our extensive diplomatic network, already one of the largest in the world, and providing more funding for new trade deals. We should, however, judge our standing in the world notjust by the money we spend but by the causes we advance and the values we defend. Mr speaker, if this Spending Reviews First Priority was getting the country through coronavirus and it second was Stronger Public services, ourfinal priority it second was Stronger Public services, our final priority is to deliver our record investment plans in infrastructure. Capital spending next year will total £100 billion, £27 billion more in real terms than last year. Our plans deliver the highest sustained level of Public Investment in more than 40 years. 0nce investment in more than 40 years. Once in investment in more than 40 years. 0nce ina investment in more than 40 years. Once in a generation plans to deliver once in a generation returns for our country. To build housing, we are introducing a £7. 1 billion National Home building fund, on top of the £12. 2 billion Affordable Homes programme. We will deliver faster broadband for over 5 million premises across the uk. Better mobile connectivity with 4g coverage across 95 of the country by 2025. The biggest ever investment in new roads, upgraded railways, new cycle lanes, over 800 zero emission buses. 0ur capital plans will invest in the greener future we promised, delivering the Prime Ministers ten point plan for climate change. We are making this country a scientific superpower with almost £15 billion of funding for research and development and we are publishing today a comprehensive new National Infrastructure strategy. To help finance the plans, i can also announce we will establish a new uk infrastructure bank, headquarters in the north of england, the bank will work with the private sector to finance major new investment projects across the uk, starting this spring. I have one further announcement to make. For many people, the most powerful barometer of economic success is the change they see and the pride they feel in they see and the pride they feel in the places we call home. People want to be able to look around their towns and villages and say, yes, our community, this place, is better off thanit community, this place, is better off than it was five years ago. For too long, ourfunding than it was five years ago. For too long, our funding approach than it was five years ago. For too long, ourfunding approach has been complex and ineffective. I want to change that. Today, i am announcing a new levelling fund worth £4 billion. Any local area will be able to bid directly to fund local projects. The fund will be managed jointly between the treasury, the department for transportation, and the ministry of housing, communities and local government, taking a new, holistic, place based approach to the needs of local areas. Projects must have real impact, they must be delivered within this parliament, and they must command local support, including from the member of parliament. This is about funding the infrastructure of everyday life. A new bypass, upgraded railway stations, less traffic, more libraries, museums, galleries, better high streets in town centres, this government is funding the things people want and places need. Mr speaker, today i have announced Huge Investment injobs, Public Services and infrastructure. And yet i cannot deny numbers alone can ring hollow. They stand testament to our commitment to create a better nation, but on their own, they are not enough to create one. When asked what our vision for the future of this country is, we cannot point to a Shopping List of announcements and feel the job is a Shopping List of announcements and feel thejob is done. As we invest billions in research and development, we are also introducing a new immigration system, ensuring the best and brightest from around the best and brightest from around the world come here to learn, innovate, create. As we invest billions in the building of new homes, we are also simplifying our Planning System to ensure Beautiful Homes are built where they are needed most. As we invest billions in the security of this country, we are also defending free speech and democratic rule, proving our values are more than just words. And as we invest billions in Public Services, we are also protecting the wages of those on the lowest incomes and supporting jobs because good work remains the most rewarding unsustainable path prosperity. The Spending Review announced today sets us on Spending Review announced today sets usona Spending Review announced today sets us on a path to deal with the material matters of government and it isa material matters of government and it is a clear statement of our priorities. But encouraging the individual and community brilliance on which a Thriving Society depends remains as ever they work unfinished. We in government can set the direction, better schools, unfinished. We in government can set the direction, betterschools, more homes, stronger defence, safer streets, green energy, technological development, enhanced roads, all investments creating jobs and giving every person in this country the chance to meet their potential. But it is the individual, family, and the community that must become stronger, healthier and happier a result. This is the true measure of our success. The spending announced todayis our success. The spending announced today is secondary to the courage, wisdom, kindness and creativity it unleashes. These are the incalculable but essential parts of our future and they cannot be mandated or distributed by government. These things must come from each of us. And be shared freely. Because the future, this better country, is a common endeavour. Today government has funded the priorities of the british people and now the job of delivering them begins. Mr speaker, i commend this statement to the house. Them begins. Mr speaker, i commend this statement to the housem them begins. Mr speaker, i commend this statement to the house. It has beena very this statement to the house. It has been a very important statement. It has run much longer, that was agreed with the chancellor, obviously, i have divided the time up to give an increase to the other parties as well. Shadow chancellor of the exchequer, anneliese dodds. Thank you. This Spending Review was a moment for the chancellor to take the responsible choices our country needs. It was an opportunity to protect key workers, said she was the economy and recoverjobs in every pa rt the economy and recoverjobs in every part of our country. During this crisis, we have seen who has taken responsibility. Community Health Workers working around the clock to keep us all safe. The teachers who kept working so key workers could too. The delivery drivers and shop staff who made sure we had critical food drivers and shop staff who made sure we had criticalfood supplies. Earlier this year, the chancellor stood on his doorstep and clapped for key workers. Today his government institutes a pay freeze for many of them. This takes a sledgehammer to consumer confidence. Firefighters, police officers, and teachers will know their spending power is going down so they will spend less in our Small Businesses and on our high streets, they will spend less in our private sector. Many key workers, who willingly took on so much responsibility in this crisis, are now being. Tighten their belts, now, not in the medium term to which the chancellor refers, now. In contrast, there has been a bonanza for those who have won contracts from this government, companies with political connections have been ten times more likely to win government contracts. So many businesses have worked tirelessly through this pandemic to support local communities, keep critical supplies going, and to produce drugs and vaccines, at cost price in the case of astrazeneca, working with some of the countrys best scientists. But in its response to this pandemic, the conservative government has wasted and mismanaged public finances on an industrial scale. £130 million to a conservative donor foot testing kits that were unsafe. £150 million full facemasks and 700 million on coveralls that could not be used. £12 billion hit to our economy because the more effective, short Circuit Breaker was blocked and a lengthier, more expensive lockdown put in place instead. £12 billion so far spent on a test and trace system thatis far spent on a test and trace system that is still not working. Today news of £10 billion in additional costs for ppe, at least partly down to the conservatives lack of preet pandemic planning. The waste and mismanagement as part of a longer term pattern showing claims today around levelling up simply do not match the evidence. Hospitals in liverpool and son were left in doubt, i have a deadline by years and over budget by hundreds of millions of pounds, not a single starter home built, despite almost £200 million being spent, Northern Powerhouse rail, still not even approved six years after being announced. The courts modernisation programme, three years behind schedule, letting down victims up and down the country. People in the north, more likely to have been made redundant in this crisis, Everything Else being equal. We need delivery, like liam byrnes promotion of green manufacturing in the West Midlands and the work of Labour Councils across the country and we need a government in westminster that takes its responsibility towards all four nations seriously. That means informing the finance minister of Northern Ireland about the shorter timescale for this Spending Review ahead of time. And fulfilling the new decade new approach commitments. Doing the right thing by the people of wales to repair flood damage and make of wales to repair flood damage and ma ke safe of wales to repair flood damage and make safe legacy coal tips. It means ending the barney between westminster and holyrood and instead working in partnership to protect jobs and livelihoods. And it means a shared Prosperity Fund which is effective because it is delivered not on the whim of conservative ministers but from our devolved governments and our regions. The levelling up fund the chancellor just announced, his rabbit out of the hat, yet again, it involves mps, just as with the beaching reopening programme, going to ministers and begging full support for the areas, rather than change being driven from local communities. So much, mr speaker, for taking back control. This is about the centre handing over support in a very top down manner. Labour has been clear about the responsible choices we wanted the responsible choices we wanted the chancellor to make today. To recover jobs, we the chancellor to make today. To recoverjobs, we train workers, rebuilt businesses. To recoverjobs, labour called for £30 billion of capital spending, accelerated into the next 18 months, focused on green initiatives supporting 400,000 jobs and bringing us in line with countries like france and germany. To retrain workers, we needed an Emergency Programme to support people back into work, but kick start has been slow to get started and the skills offered for those of 25 wont start until april. The chancellor said at the beginning of his speech that our economic emergency has onlyjust begun. Try telling that to people who have been out of work since march. Restart announced today must meet three key tests to be effective. It should help people who need it most, not cherry pick. It should be up and running as soon cherry pick. It should be up and running as soon as cherry pick. It should be up and running as soon as possible, yet it appears only a fraction of restart funding will be available next year. Restart must involve local actors who know their communities, not be imposed from whitehall. 0f who know their communities, not be imposed from whitehall. Of course, job search support ultimately only works if sufficient newjobs actually exist. That is why we needed ambitious action to boost our economy and to support our businesses. To rebuild business, we called for a National Investment bank andi called for a National Investment bank and i welcomed the announcement ofa bank and i welcomed the announcement of a new uk infrastructure bank, having lost valuable years since the green Investment Bank was sold off. Now the chancellor must boost its firepower and he must deliver on his departments responsibility for the drive to net zero. We have known since the stern reports that the Climate Crisis is the biggest long term threat to our economy yet far too often, this Spending Review looks at into a path that will make the transition to next zero harder, not easier. Looking our economy out of the greenjobs not easier. Looking our economy out of the green jobs of the future. To rebuild business, chancellor also needs to listen to business. We are less tha n needs to listen to business. We are less than a week from the end of the lockdown yet we have heard nothing about whether extra support will be provided through the additional restriction support grant for areas subject once again to tough restrictions. The chancellor still threatening employers with an increased contribution to follow in january, at the worst possible time for increasing and building confidence. Mr speaker, in less than 40 days, we urge you to leave the transition period, yet the chancellor didnt even mention that in his speech. There is still new trade deal so does the chancellor chile believe that his government is prepared and that he has done enough to help those businesses that will be heavily affected . Will he take responsible action also to help those excluded from Government Supports or is he still refusing to make the speedy fixes to universal credit neighbour has advocated which would aid self employed, and why wont he provide families with certainty by ensuring the increase in universal credit is continued beyond april the imf has made clear time and time again that now would be the worst time to slam on the bra kes be the worst time to slam on the brakes and put the car into reverse. They have called for a meaningful additional push from our government to maintain fiscal support until the recovery is on a sound footing. The uks gdp is 10 smaller now than it was at the end of last year. We have seen was at the end of last year. We have seen the worst downturn in the g7, we needed ambitious action today to assimilate growth and maintain demand. We need the government to ta ke demand. We need the government to take responsibility for the real reasons why people in communities are being held back up and down the country. 0ver are being held back up and down the country. Over the last ten years, Child Poverty has risen by 600,000. We have had the worst decade prepay growth in eight generations. The cost of childcare has risen twice as fast as wages. The number of young apprentices has plummeted. Last quarter we saw the highest level of redundancies on record full stops social care is an increasing crisis and despite his partys manifesto promising a long term solution, we are still waiting. In the press it was trailed at the chancellor would be moving 20,000 jobs out of london yet cut to local authorities of the last ten years have seen 240,000 jobs lost, 12 times that figure, but the hardest hit communities often in the hardest hit communities often in the north, midlands and south west. Today the chancellor could have matched his governments promised to do whatever is necessary to support local authorities through this crisis. He did not, and yet again, he showed his governments lack of confidence in its own measures by failing to provide an equality impact assessment. Mr speaker, the measure of this government wont be the number of press releases issued during this crisis with a number of pictures is published on instagram, it will be the responsible action it took or didnt take for the sick of our country. Next year, the ayes of the world will be on the uk as we estimate the presidency of the g7 and of the Un Security Council and host the 2016 summer. Now is the time the chancellor has turned its back on the world poorest by cutting edge national aid. It is in Britains National interest to lay the foundations for Economic Growth across the world. No wonder many british businesses have condemned his move and businesses have been more and more vocal about the problems with this governments last minute approach, always one step behind when we need to plan responsibly for the future. We must learn the lessons from previous failures and ensure that the next challenge, the roll out of the vaccine, is dealt with efficiently, effectively and speedily. Next time, mr speaker, we need a comprehensive Spending Review which takes responsible choices, to build a future for our country is the best place in the world to grow up in and the best place to grow old in. People should have opportunities on their doorstep, not at the other end of the country. Everywhere in the uk should feel like a good place to set up should feel like a good place to set up home. That is what the chancellor must deliver. The shadow chancellor sitting down after responding to rishi sunak in what was a very sobering statement from the chancellor. We will look at the figures in a bit more detail but you cant get away from the fact that the biggest number perhaps that came out of that was the £394 billion of borrowing this year. It is the biggest peacetime shock to the economy, and as such, on the other figures the economy, and as such, on the otherfigures and the economy, and as such, on the other figures and lasting for certainly the rest of this parliament. Im going to go over some of the other main measures that we re some of the other main measures that were announced by rishi sunak. A Public Sector pay freeze for millions of Public Sector workers, not all. Minimum wage rise to go ahead but not as generous as we had expected. A cut which was trailed and expected to overseas aid from 0. 7 of gdp, which was enshrined in law by a previous conservative government, to 0. 5 , supposed to be temporary. A £4. 6 billionjob package, we will of course focus on theissue package, we will of course focus on the issue of unemployment. And then new money for what theyre calling the levelling up a fund to go to parts of the uk that have suffered in the past. Let me just get an insta nt in the past. Let me just get an instant reaction here in the studio. First, perhaps you can take as of some of the figures, including the economy contracting by 11. 3 , slightly bigger than we were expecting, and thats the largest full in output, rishi sunak said, for 300 years. Yes, and its one of those times when actually, the figures are sort of obvious when you think about whatever and has lived through over the last year, its describing what we have gone through and hopefully what we are coming out of right now. Nonetheless it does show what an impact on the economy and the knock on impacts which are detailed in this the first full report from the office for budget responsibility since the pandemic in the lockdown took hold, so you have that heat. Then you have a slimmer rebound slimmer rebound, and information from the chancellor and the 0b art was that by 2025, the end of this parliament, it will be 3 lower than wed expected before this pandemic. That permit kind of scarring effect on public finances. I willjust show scarring effect on public finances. I will just show you scarring effect on public finances. I willjust show you and our viewers of the figures in terms of net borrowing, these are figures from the obr, £394 billion borrowing, these are figures from the 0br, £394 billion of borrowing, 164 billion from 21 22, and. In terms of the amount still at the end of this parliament, whats your reaction . Its just of this parliament, whats your reaction . Itsjust enormous. Absolutely eye watering the enormous. And if you think of the debate we had, really, from the late notice all the way through to the 2015 election, that was defined by how is the country going to repay back what we borrowed in the credit crisis cosmic this as that then some, the credit card, the national mortgage, everything, absolutely maxed out, enormous levels of the country basically being in the red. And its not really a surprise, we have all known that, seeing shops shut, pubs shut, people stuck at home, the economy basically put into deep freeze for months on end. But seeing it spelt out like this in black and white is really, really start. Its really, really important. And it just start. Its really, really important. And itjust seems to me that today in a sort of political since its like that moment in 2010 when the chief secretary of the treasure elite that not even left saying, there is no money left, this is rishi sunak saying theres really no money. Thats better when the chief secretary of the treasury leaked that note that had been left. And were not even through this. This is the beginning of the economic emergency, perhaps the ending almost of the Health Emergency if the vaccines come as good as people hope for, but this is really only the beginning of the second act, and the third act, how we second act, and the third act, how we pay it back, is still a way off. Interesting from the sigma, we are reaching post war highs in terms of our borrowing in a single year from the 0br, its up to a fifth of National Income is borrowing, and yet, next year, the cost of funding thatis yet, next year, the cost of funding that is a record low. Right. That is not the Million Dollar question, but the billion. This is a really important issue, actually. Because occasionally, on the floor of the house of commons, you get people thinking, whatever happened last time, the argument repeats. I think whats interesting is that you have had a certain amount of consensus, that we can run borrowing higher, and that has run far further, i have to say, then i would have expected, reporting on this during the kind of Coalition Austerity years. We are looking at debt above the size of the overall economy on some is helped by the bank of england buying up helped by the bank of england buying up government debt, but they say they will pay that back, that helps lower the Interest Rates. But how long does that last . I think most people say its guaranteed these low Interest Rates two or three years, but what happens in several years . Thats the concern in the treasury, but, we are very sensitive, thick stock of debt, to relatively small increase in the level of interest. What about growth . Rishi sunak also outlined growth figures, and our viewers may remember v shaped recoveries, various letters being used to outline what the recovery might do, and we had sort of a site of the growth figures that were forecast, 5. 5 in 20 oh next year, going up and then coming down again in 24. Whats that going to look like in terms of trying to make a dent in terms of the economys debt . That clearly a hope what you traditionally regarded as a recovery, economy going by five or 6 recovery, economy going by five or 696 in recovery, economy going by five or 6 in the year, traditionally we would go, thats massive but i think from a political point of view, given the extent of the drop, even view, given the extent of the drop, evenif view, given the extent of the drop, even if the figures are as good as that, and who knows . These forecasts are all too often proven wrong, the reality is that the extent of the change is so huge that even a bounce back like that, if it is a v shape, thats still not going to make up for the gap that has been created and thats why you hear in tory circles real concern that, 0k, known one is demanding right now that this is payback, known no one is demanding right now that people are asking for tax rises are further cuts for the rest of it, but before too long, there are tories who are really itchy to hear how the government plans to consolidate, how the government really plans to put rocket boosters up the private sector to actually grow our way out of it rather than the government looking to balance taxes in its own spending. And there was relatively little from rishi sunak about the sort of zeal and opportunity in the private sector. There was an interesting, slightly thatcher ish pa rt interesting, slightly thatcher ish part where he was talking about community and family and business, but one senior tory mp said to me, i wa nt but one senior tory mp said to me, i want to hear how hes going to recreate the animal spirit of the economy, how is going to unleash the power of the entrepreneur to make a difference. There are two the uncertainties on these figures. 0ne is the vaccine, of course. And of course thats going