00:00This budget chose investment over further decline in this country but importantly with really strong
00:04fiscal rules in place. So our stability rule means that for the first time since the last
00:09Labour government we'll be paying for our day-to-day costs in public services, the tax receipts instead
00:14of borrowing each and every month to pay the bills. That is a good thing and our investment
00:18rule means that debt will be falling as a share of the economy ahead of schedule in 2027-28. So
00:24these robust fiscal rules verified by the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility
00:28show that there's confidence in this budget and confidence in our plans. So our commitments in
00:33the manifesto not to increase income tax or national insurance on employees and their pay
00:36slips, not to increase VAT and not to increase corporation tax on business profits is an election
00:42promise not just for this budget but for every single budget between now and the next election.
00:46But because we inherited public finances out of control from the Conservatives we've had to make
00:50those tax decisions, other tax decisions in this budget to get a grip of public finances. But as
00:55the Chancellor has said we don't expect to have to do that again because a lot of the heavy lifting
00:59in this budget was clearing the slate clean from the Conservatives' inheritance that is our
01:04responsibility as the new government to do. What the IFS have also said is that they didn't know
01:09and we didn't know and you didn't know that the Conservatives had completely blown what's called
01:13the reserve, the country's overdraft in the last fiscal year. The Office of Budget Responsibility
01:17confirmed at Budget this week that had Conservative ministers been transparent about that
01:22the information that we would have all had going into the election would have been quote
01:25materially different. So it's wrong to say there was dishonesty about that.
01:29The only people that have been dishonest are Conservative ministers.
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