argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Tobias Martin Ellwood (Conservative, Centre-right): I commend the Chancellor for having to make some very difficult decisions, but as President-elect Biden commits to a new era of western leadership, here we are about to mark the start of our G7 presidency by cutting our overseas aid budget. Downgrading our soft power programmes will leave vacuums in some of the poorest parts of the world that will further poverty and instability. It is likely to see China and Russia extending their authoritarian influence by taking our place. Will my right hon. Friend concede that we cannot genuinely claim to be global Britain, or claim to be serious about creating post-conflict strategies for countries such as Libya and Yemen—strategies that could lead to greater UK prosperity —when our hard power is not matched by our soft power? Will he meet me to discuss how these dated rules governing overseas aid should be updated?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Pauline Elizabeth Latham (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate the Chancellor on how he has handled the financial pressures that the pandemic has thrown at the Government, by thinking outside the box with brilliant, innovative solutions. However, I cannot support the new tiering system, because it is totally illogical and will force too many people to stay holed up at home. Hospitality businesses will fold in their tens of thousands, and I cannot condone that when they have spent tens of thousands becoming covid-safe I will also not support the reduction in the aid budget. This country has made an amazing difference to the lives of millions, but with the reduction of GNI and the proposed cut, the aid budget will be decimated. No longer will girls have 12 years of quality education—resulting in more child marriages, more instances of early childbirth, more female genital mutilation and more domestic violence. We will not be vaccinating millions, preventing polio and TB, providing medication for HIV or preventing malaria. We will be reduced to spending on humanitarian crises in emergencies only—
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My priority throughout this crisis has been protecting jobs. I am pleased to see that that is something the OBR, the Bank of England and the IMF all acknowledge has happened as a result of our interventions. We currently have an unemployment rate that is lower than Italy, France, Spain, Canada and the United States. So, yes, I do think what we are doing is making a difference to millions of people up and down the country.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Huw William Merriman (Conservative, Centre-right): Can I commend all the work that the Chancellor has done this year? Many constituents I speak to credit him personally with keeping them in a job. I am also pleased to see that, despite the financial pressures, the Chancellor is investing in transport. We see multi-year settlements for road, rail and active travel, and changes to the way infrastructure projects are appraised to increase the number of transport projects in deprived parts of the country, as well as a green book, a national infrastructure strategy, a red book and a £4 billion levelling up fund—and I am pleased to see that the Department for Transport is a sponsor. Can I ask him to keep a watchful eye on how all that is spent? Will he continue to place transport investment at the heart of our recovery and his long-term vision for this country?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very grateful for my hon. Friend’s intervention. He is absolutely right, and he has championed tirelessly for his constituents and the country the importance of transport in our levelling-up agenda and in helping to drive growth and spread opportunity. He is also right that we should be careful about how this money is spent and make sure that it is delivered. I talked about Project Speed earlier, and I would welcome his involvement and advice on that. He will notice in the spending review document a new focus on outcomes across public services with a new public value framework. That will deliver what he is asking for.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): At the beginning of this crisis, we made changes to the way that statutory sick pay operates, ensuring that it was payable from day one rather than day four, and for those who are self-employed, and we made changes to the way that universal credit, employment and support allowance and the minimum income floor work—all to enable some of the things that the hon. Gentleman mentioned. It is worth bearing in mind that, on the last survey evidence we have, a majority of people —something north of 60%—get more than statutory sick pay as a result of the treatment of their employers.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I recognise that the Chancellor will have made the decision on 0.7% with an extremely heavy heart, but does he recognise that the respect felt for this country around the world is because we have championed causes throughout our history that matter to people everywhere, such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law? One of those causes is tackling extreme poverty. To cut our aid budget by a third in a year when millions more will fall into extreme poverty will make not just them poorer but us poorer in the eyes of the world, because people will worry that we are abandoning a noble ideal that we in this country have done more to champion than anyone else.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I am enormously grateful to my right hon. Friend for the approach that he has taken and I appreciate our conversations on this topic. Of course he rightly feels passionately about it. As he knows better than anyone, there are many ways in which we exert our influence and our values across the world—aid is just one part. Even at 0.5%, we will still be more generous as a percentage of GDP than almost all our major economy peers—France, Japan, Canada, Italy, the United States—and than the average of the OECD. The values that he cares deeply about I also care deeply about, and I look forward to talking with him further about how best we can express those values and make a difference to those who need our help everywhere that we find them.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Robert Andrew Raymond Syms (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Chancellor for his statement. Over the last 10 years, we have spent over £100 billion on overseas aid, with a lot of it borrowed. Most of my constituents will understand the difficult decision that the Government have had to make. At 0.5%, our aid spending will be higher than that of most of our neighbours, and probably higher than the Major Government and many other Governments in the past. He has set out the recovery in GDP and growth over the next three or four years, and no doubt the budget will go up again.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his comment. He is right—I think the average aid spending of the last Labour Government was 0.36%, so it will be sufficiently ahead of that. As I said, we intend to return to this over time when the fiscal situation allows. He will appreciate better than others the unbelievable uncertainty at the moment, but that is our intention.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
John David Penrose (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Chancellor’s continuing commitment to sound money. It is particularly easy to forget, in a year when we have just seen an 11.3% cut in the size of the economy, that ultimately, all the money that we are borrowing must eventually be paid back by us as taxpayers. So I urge him not to lose that focus, and as soon as possible to get back to a sustainable basis. As part of that, could he say more about the Restart programme, which he mentioned earlier—a crucial thing to get members of the long-term unemployed back into work? How many people does he expect that to help, and what benefit does he expect that to have for our long-term, sustainable economy?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): As ever, my right hon. Friend speaks fantastically good sense. He is right; we will need to return to a sustainable fiscal position, not least to build resilience for the next crisis or shock that comes along. We want to be able to react in the same comprehensive and generous way that we did this time, and that requires us to have a strong set of public finances going into it My right hon. Friend is right about the Restart programme, which will help, we hope, around 1 million of those who are long-term unemployed; it will be an exciting and ambitious programme. The Institute for Employment Studies has spoken very well about the evidence in favour of that type of high-quality, individual work-focused approach making an enormous difference in getting people back into work. If we can do that, we can reduce some of the long-term scarring that they will face. So I have high hopes for what that programme can achieve.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Mark Julian Francis Pawsey (Conservative, Centre-right): May I first join my hon. Friends in expressing concern about the proposal to reduce overseas aid, but welcome today’s announcements in particular on infrastructure, apprenticeships and research and development, which will create wealth and jobs? I also welcome the substantial support that the Chancellor has provided to help businesses and people get through coronavirus. However, my constituents know that those measures will all have to be paid for, so can he assure them that when this economic emergency is over, he will return to a policy of balancing the books?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Although it is right to act in this way during the crisis, it would not be a sustainable way to operate. The important thing to know is that right now the focus should be on supporting businesses and jobs; but once our economic recovery is secure, we can turn our task to making sure that we have a strong set of public finances.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): It would be wrong to describe this policy as a blanket pay freeze when a majority of those working in the public sector will see an increase in their pay next year, because they earn less than the UK median salary of £24,000 or they work in the NHS, or, indeed, they are on the national living wage. Across all those areas, there will be a pay increase. That will benefit millions of people and make a difference to the economy.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): On the last numbers, there are 100,000 fewer children in absolute poverty than in 2010 and 750,000 fewer children living in workless households than in 2010. The hon. Gentleman asked about nurseries and early years. He will be pleased to know that an above-inflation increase in the hourly rate for nursery providers is contained in the spending review.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman talked about those on the lowest pay. We accepted the recommendations from the Low Pay Commission to increase the national living wage by 2.2%. That will make a difference of £345 to full-time national living wage workers, as well as protecting those in the public sector who earn up to the average UK salary of £24,000, who will receive a £250 uplift.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
John Charles Baron (Conservative, Centre-right): I commend the Chancellor on many of these measures, including the support for the lower-paid. When it comes to funding, I encourage him not to stifle enterprise through increases in taxes, as these are often counter- productive. May I raise with him the case of social care workers? They provide an essential service but they are often overlooked, in part because they span the private and public sectors. What more can he do for them? For example, further to my letter to him, will he consider raising their personal tax threshold so that they can take home more of their pay?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right about the importance of social care workers. He will know that they are not formally part of public sector pay settlements, but many of them are national living wage workers, as he knows, so they will benefit from the increase of 2.2% that we are putting in place for next year. He will also know that we have already made a start in the Budget on our desire to raise the national insurance threshold, delivering cash benefits to people of about £100 this year, but it is something that we will keep under review for future fiscal events.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): The OBR and others have said that our economic interventions have helped to keep down unemployment and protected jobs, and that is part of the reason why our unemployment rate is lower than that in Italy, France, Spain, Canada and the United States.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): I support the Chancellor’s decision to cut the overseas aid budget, which will be widely welcomed across the country in the real world, even if not always in here. I do not see why it should be controversial to say that we should spend only what we can afford on overseas aid. I suspect that the vast majority of the British public will be asking not why he has cut so much, but probably why we are still spending so much. If some of that money that he is saving can be spent on the much-needed and long-awaited Shipley eastern bypass and on some proper flood defences in the Shipley constituency then so much the better.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady talked about a few different things, transport and digital connectivity being among the most important to her region. This spending review delivers on both those priorities, with record amounts of spending on road, rail, intra-city transportation, buses and cycling, and, on digital connectivity, with our plans to bring 85% of the country to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, we are also delivering on the green plan that I outlined. I very much look forward to hearing from her and her local areas once we launch the levelling-up fund, because I am sure there will be projects we can make a difference to.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Richard Quentin Fuller (Conservative, Centre-right): In his statement, my right hon. Friend said: "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." He is right on that, and the private sector and businesses will respond to what he has announced today. When it comes to the consideration of taxes, will he look to protect the incentives for those who invest and grow such businesses?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that the aerospace industry has been suffering a particularly difficult time over the past few months, and that has impacted businesses such as Rolls-Royce and others up and down the supply chain. We have put some measures in place to help airports and get people flying again, and we enjoy conversations with specific companies all the time. I urge all companies to work constructively with their workforces through what is a difficult period and, we hope, find resolution. Collectively, we are all trying to protect jobs, but of course this is a very challenging set of circumstances.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): The case has been settled in the courts and there is not much further I can add, but today we have announced an uplift of 2.5% for 12 million pensioners on the state pension, which I know will make a difference to many.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Education
Ben Everitt (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sure the Chancellor shares my vision that Milton Keynes and the wider Thames valley can be the silicon valley of Europe. We know that 88% of UK companies are currently experiencing a lack of digital skills, and that this is costing our economy £63 billion a year. May I therefore ask whether the proposal for a brand new STEM-focused science and digital technology university in Milton Keynes would be eligible to apply for funding from the new £4 billion pot for levelling up?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): Those in the public sector who earn less than £24,000, which is the UK national median wage, will receive a fixed increase of at least £250. That is 2.1 million people—38% of the workforce. [Interruption.] Well, it will depend on each worker’s exact salary, but there will be a fixed increase of £250 for all of those 2 million workers.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): Obviously those businesses will be able to use the generous terms of the furlough scheme for their staff through the winter period. The more than £1 billion of funding that we made available to local authorities before the start of the latest national restrictions was also to support businesses and local economies in the way that authorities saw fit throughout the winter period. That funding is available at a local level, perhaps to do some of the things that my hon. Friend mentioned.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Energy
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not believe that we are behind France and Germany. We are phasing out internal combustion engine vehicles 10 years before France, and we are phasing out coal 13 years before Germany. Indeed, the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan will support up to a quarter of a million green jobs, building on the progress that we have made by being the country that has decarbonised the fastest out of all major economies.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. He highlights a perfect example of this country making an enormous difference to millions of people around the world, not just with our aid budget but through the quality of our research and then our desire to find commercial partners who will bring that life-saving treatment to millions of people at cost. It is a fantastic example, and my hon. Friend is right to highlight it.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sure the hon. Lady heard the answer to the previous question on this issue. She keeps mentioning this 3 million figure without giving an explanation of whether she agrees that 1.5 million of those people should be included, given that they make the majority of their earnings from employment and are eligible to be furloughed. Indeed, that approach was supported by all trade organisations at the time when the scheme was launched.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): Anyone in the circumstances described by the hon. Lady would surely be eligible for support through universal credit, which can provide, depending on the circumstances, somewhere between £1,500 and £1,800 per family per month to help to support them if that is what they need. She talks about the self-employed as if perhaps they are not also people who benefit from better hospitals, better schools, better local infrastructure and safer streets. That is what this spending review delivers, and it will benefit everybody in the United Kingdom in that way.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): All I would say is that our teams are hard at work, and I am very hopeful that we can reach a constructive agreement with our European friends and partners. Our wishes in this negotiation have always been consistent and transparent and are based entirely on the precedent of what other countries have achieved with the EU, so I am very much hopeful that, with good work and a constructive attitude, we can get there.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
David Anthony Andrew Amess (Conservative, Centre-right): In what must be the most challenging circumstances ever to deliver a spending review, I welcome the Restart scheme to help the unemployed. Last year, £500 million was announced to help youth services, and Southend YMCA greatly benefited from that. Will the Chancellor recommit to that £500 million, and will he set out a timeframe in which that can be delivered over the next five years?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of youth services. I am not entirely sure exactly which bit he refers to, but I am happy to talk to him further about it. He will see in today’s spending review that the National Citizen Service is still there and we have provided more funding for capital projects for youth organisations, but I will happily pick up the specific case he mentioned separately.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Law and Crime
Andrew John Carter (Conservative, Centre-right): I praise the measured and sensible way that the Chancellor has approached this spending review, and I welcome in particular the infrastructure fund. With levelling up in the north of England a real priority, I look forward to discussing more projects for Warrington South with him. I am particularly pleased to see that those working in the lowest-paid public sector jobs will get a pay increase, but can he confirm that the extra police officers promised for Cheshire will be delivered so that we can tackle antisocial behaviour and protect our communities from the dreadful impact of county lines drug gangs?