Refinitiv Newscasts - British PM Sunak speaks about the economy after interest rates hike 1

BNK Banking

22/06/2023 15:45

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Source: Reuters

Description: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak holds a PM Connect in
Dartford. He will be talking about the economy in the light of the interest
rate rise and the expected hit coming for mortgage rates.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/46jLFVG

Video Transcript:

>> Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Gareth Johnson, the Member of Parliament for
Dartford. And I just first of all want to say how delighted we are in
Dartford. The IKEA has chosen this town to build its latest distribution
center, is absolutely fantastic for the local area. Something like 400 new
jobs have been created as a result of that decision. It's a massive vote of
confidence from IKEA in Dartford. And in many ways that's very indicative of
the confidence that business now has in this country and in the future of this
country. So I'm really, really pleased with that as well. I'm absolutely
delighted that the prime minister is coming here today to answer some of the
questions that I think some of you may have, and also speak to our friends of
the media as well a little bit later. And so ladies and gentlemen, I'm going
to hand over to the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. >> Perfect. Thank you,
Gareth. Hi everyone. How are you? Actually, this is what an incredible place.
So congratulations for all working here and thank you for having me. It's
brilliant to be here with IKEA and with Canton, I must say, everything's been
superb so far. Although my team were a little bit sad that there were no
meatballs at lunch. But I don't know about how your canteen worked, but other
than that it's been brilliant. So thank you for having me. Now I think
yesterday you would have heard some news about inflation. Today you may have
seen what the Bank of England has announced with interest rates. And I'm sure
that actually fills many of you with some anxiety and some concern about
what's going on and what that mean for you and your families. I'm here to tell
you that I am totally 100% on it and it is going to be okay and we are going
to get through this. That is the most important thing I wanted to let you know
today. Now you should know, I don't know if this won't make it any easier, but
what we're grappling with here is something that many countries around the
world are all grappling with at the same time as we are right now. So if you
look at interest rates in Australia, in Canada, in New Zealand, across the
world, they're all at high levels. Actually, interest rates in Europe, the
highest they've been in for 20 years because they're all grappling with
inflation in the same way that we are. Many of you may have friends or family
in those places, and if you spoke to them, they tell you the same thing. Now
that doesn't make it any easier. Of course, I know that. But it's important
for you to know that we're not alone in dealing with this. And I know how
important this is and that's why at the beginning of the year, I made a speech
and I set out my five priorities for the country that I wanted to deliver as
your prime minister. The first of those was to half inflation. I know how
important this is, that's why I said it as my top priority. And look, it's not
easy. Rooting out inflation is not easy. It requires difficult decisions.
Doesn't happen overnight, but if we don't get on top of it, it would just get
worse and it would last longer. and that's not going to do anyone any favors.
It's not going to be good for you and your families in the long run and even
though it means I have to make some difficult decisions. That's the type of
prime minister I am, because I want to do the right thing for you and your
families in the long term. Now why does inflation matter? Why did it matter to
me? Why did I set it as my top priority? It's pretty simple. It's because
inflation eats into the pounds in your pocket. As simple as that. Makes us
everybody poorer. It means prices go up, it means your savings get eroded. It
puts jobs and livelihoods at risk. And that's why it's so important that we
target it and get it down. That's why I said I wanted to half it on its way to
getting it back down to 2% where it belongs. And I am absolutely confident
that if we hold our nerve and stick to our plan, we will do that. And you
should feel the same confidence that I do because we are going to get through
this and going to get this done. Now why do I feel confident? What is that
plan I'm talking about? Well, three parts to it. The first is, I've got to
make sure government is doing everything that it needs to do. And that means
being responsible with our borrowing because we cannot in a situation like
this, borrow too much money because that makes everything worse. So that
means, much as I would love to, I'd love to cut your taxes tomorrow. You'd
love that. I'd love that. Of course I would. That's hard to do because that
means I have to borrow more money to do it. Another thing is I can't say yes
to every single thing that people want me to spend more money on. Because that
would mean we'd have to borrow money to do all of that. That means I have to
make some difficult choices. I have to prioritize, same as all of you do in
your household budgets. I have to do the same thing too. And it means when
we're trying to figure out how we pay all our fantastic public sector workers,
I need to think about what's affordable, what's responsible again, so I can
manage our borrowing. Now none of those things that I talked about are easy.
Those are all difficult decisions that I have to make. But if I just gave into
the easy thing every time, that would just mean more and more government
borrowing that just puts fuel on the fire, makes inflation worse, pushes up
interest rates even higher. So even though it's tough for me in the short
term, doesn't make my life easy. Anyone who tells you that it would be easy
isn't being straight with you. I want to be straight with you. That means I do
have to make these difficult decisions. But that's the right thing to do. Is
the right thing to do for you and your families in the long run and that's why
I'm going to stick to the course and manage our borrowing. Now the second part
of the plan is making sure that we tackle all those areas where inflation is
particularly bad. Energy is an obvious one. The bills that you've had to pay
over the last year have been extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary. Never
seen anything like it. Now I'm pleased they're going to be starting to come
down. So bills are going to come down about 430 quid starting in July. That's
good news. Hopefully we're over the worst of this and they'll keep coming down
after that. But that's just now we need to make sure this doesn't happen again
and that they keep coming down that means we need to have more energy. So
we're investing more in renewable energy like offshore winds, building nuclear
power stations, but also making sure that we get more energy here at home from
the North Sea. More oil and gas, which we're going to need for the next few
decades as we transition to a cleaner future. So we're investing in that too.
Now food is another area where your weekly shop has gone up far too much in
the past few months especially. So we're looking at the supermarkets, making
sure that they're behaving responsibly and fairly when it comes to pricing all
those products to make sure that we're easing the burdens on your weekly shop.
And then when it comes to jobs, I think most of you probably read on the
paper, you'll have seen that businesses everywhere really need people to work
at the moment. And it's finding it hard to find them almost everywhere. So
what we're doing is reforming our welfare system to make sure that if you can
work, then you should be working, shouldn't be able to just be at home. So
we're going to reform our welfare system to make sure we're doing that. But at
the same time, we're also cutting the cost of childcare to make it easier for
those working parents who want to work to be able to go back to work after
they have children because that's something that I think will make a
difference too. So that's the second part of the plan, just going after all
those specific things. Then the third part of the plan is helping those who
most need help through the worst of this. Now how have we done that? Well,
most importantly, we've helped with your energy bills. You might not know
this, but we actually made a decision. I made a decision when I was your
chancellor to tax the excess profits that the energy companies are making
because of the war in Ukraine and use that money to help pay all your energy
bills. So that support is worth about half of your typical familie's energy
bill. It's worth about 1,500 pounds of support. That is what the government
has done over the past several months. That's the scale of what we've done.
It's enormous. It's like the furlough scheme, quite frankly, and its nice. And
I know it's bad. And you're still looking at these bills saying, oh my gosh,
these are massive bills. But that's after we've taken about 1,500 quid off
them. That'll give you a sense of how much we've tried to help on energy. But
it's not just on energy, we're also providing extra help for people who really
need a bit of extra help. So those on the lowest income, the national living
wage has gone up. Hopefully, many of your wages have gone up like the national
living wage over the last year because we want to make sure those on the
lowest income see that benefit. Pensioners, it's your parents, your
grandparents. Their state pension has gone up several hundred pounds this year
to help them. And anyone who's on universal credit, they're also getting an
extra 900 pounds this year of support. So those who need a little bit of extra
help are really getting that help from the government. And at the same time,
the things that you guys do a lot which is travel, we're trying to help there.
So we've cut fuel duty which will save you about 100 quid this year for those
of you that drive. Also bus fares, we've cap bus fares at two pounds outside
of London just to help people as they're getting around. All those things and
we can talk later about the other things we're doing. Hopefully we'll just
ease the burden as we get through the worst of this inflation challenge. But
in conclusion, I end where I started really is that, this is obviously all
challenge that many countries are facing right now. But we are on it and we
are going to get through it. Now that's not easy, as I said. And anyone tells
you that it's easy or can happen overnight, they're not being straight with
you. And I want to be honest with you, these things are tough, they require
difficult decisions. But that's what you should get from your government,
that's what you should get from your prime minister, and that's what I'm going
to do. I'm going to tell it to you straight, I'm going to do the things that
we need to do to bring inflation down and I'm confident that we're going to do
that. And the reason that we can feel better about the future is because once
we get it down, that is the foundation on which we can build a better economy.
That's how we'll create more jobs and get able to pay people more, invest more
in public services. All those good things that we want are built on the
foundation of getting inflation back down. And ultimately, that's what I want.
I want to build a better country for you, your children, your grandchildren,
and tackling inflation is the first thing we need to do to build that better
future. So thanks very much for having me. It's great to be here. And I'm open
to any and all questions before we get to the media, so who wants to kick off?
>> Yes. >> You're saying that want to have the inflation. So my question is,
what are the economic strategies and policies that you have in place which can
effectively achieve that objective? >> How do we bring inflation down? Well,
the first and foremost way we do that is through interest rates. And that's
one of the reasons the Bank of England today put up interest rates, and that's
the way that all countries tackle inflation. It's called monetary policy. When
the Bank of England put up interest rates so it'll bring down interest rates,
and they put up interest rates a lot here, as they have in many other
countries, because we all need to tackle inflation. Now the second thing we
need to do is the government that I was talking about is not borrowing too
much. Because if I was doing lots of things right now, that meant that the
government was going to borrow tons more money, you should look at that and
say, well, that's not a very sensible economic policy. And anytime you hear
from politician or anyone else, something that means the government will be
borrowing more money, that's set off an alarm bell in your heads and say, hang
on, inflation is really high, interest rates are already going up. Is that
going to make the situation better or worse? It might sound great. All those
things I talked about. Let's cut your taxes over here, let's spend some more
money over there. Let's do massive pay awards for everyone in the public
sector because we really value the work they do. If I did all those things it
might feel great for a day, for a week, for a month, and pretty quickly it
would turn out to have been a really bad idea. And even if we'd given everyone
an extra pound through a tax car or paying them a lot more. Actually, if
inflation got worse and interest rates went up, we would just be getting more
than that pound back later. So that's not the right thing. So those are the
two elements of the strategy that need to be right. And then the third bit is
increasing the supply of things. Inflation ultimately is more people buying
things than we have supply for. That's what pushes prices up. So it's all
those things I talked about, getting more workers into the labor force for
businesses, reducing the cost of childcare or reforming welfare to do that,
getting more energy supply, and we have a whole new department for energy
security. I created it as prime minister, a department focused solely on our
energy security so we can build more supplies of energy. So what's happened to
us over the last year never happens again. So it's making those long term
decisions. So those are the bits of the economic strategy. That sound right?
Who's next? Yes. >> Hi, I just want to ask, do you have any ideas on how to
help the NHS at the moment? Because I've just spoken to some family members of
mine and they've just come up just to face our problems. Left, right and
center, waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance and my grandmother shifts the
book, six months to see a doctor or GP. What's going on? Any ideas? >> Yeah.
Begin of year I talked about that speech. I set out five priorities. They were
to have inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists, and to
stop the boats. We should probably talk about all of those hopefully. So
cutting waiting list is one of my five priorities because they're too big, and
people are waiting too long. And why is that? It's simple. One word, COVID. We
had a pandemic which lasted a very long time. That was the focus of the NHS
rightly, and during that period, all the people who otherwise would have gone
and got their treatment, couldn't get it, didn't get it, and now they're all
coming back. And that's why the backlogs are as high as they are. But I do a
meeting almost every week with the CEO of the NHS and the team, and we've got
a really good plan in place to bring all those numbers down. What does it
mean? It means more doctors, more nurses, more ambulances, and then being a
bit clever about how we do things, because I know you all love the NHS and you
want me to spend lots of money on it. We're doing that, but I think all of you
probably also think, are we making sure that we spend that money as
efficiently as we can? Is every pound of it being used really well? There's
lots of things we can do differently now that will help us get the waiting
list down. She waited what? You don't tell us. But if anyone's waiting for
surgery at the moment or an elective appointment, we're using things called
community diagnostic centers. Which instead of having to go to a hospital to
get your MRI scan or your CT scan, we're building new little units next to
supermarket, shopping centers, which all they do is do all the scanning. So
rather than people have to go to a hospital, and then when they get there it's
not ready because someone else had an accident and that gets rushed in, which
is going to do all the diagnostics somewhere else. And that's really
effective. Similarly with surgery, instead of it being all in the same
hospital where it keeps getting disruptive, when your grandmother is meant to
have an appointment. And they're like, no, sorry. We've had this accident
today. We've just got a standalone unit where all they're going to do that day
is lots of hip replacements or lots of cataract surgery and it's not going to
get disrupted. So we're rolling those out and those are helping too. And
you're seeing the results actually I think everyone remembers at Christmas.
Remember how bad it was for ambulance times that's improved a lot. People were
waiting an hour and a half on average for an ambulance for a serious injury
that's come right back down to around half an hour. And we want to keep that
and get it improved from there. So there's a plan in place, more doctors, more
nurses, more ambulances, and more interesting ways to use technology and drive
performance in the NHS. So the money is there, don't have any doubt about
that. There's a record amount of money going in to the NHS. We've just got to
make sure we use it efficiently. And over time we'll start to see those
waiting lists come down. The last thing I'd say is, I first want to go after
the people who had been waiting two years. We eliminated that last year. In
spring this year we virtually eliminated all the people who are waiting a year
and a half. So we've virtually eliminated that, and then the next plan for
next year is to make sure we eliminate almost everyone who's waiting one year.
So none of those are going to be easy. Those are all challenging targets that
I've set, but I really want to get performance to be better, and that's what
we're doing so that your grandmother and everyone else gets the care they
need. Who's next? Yes, sir. >> Thank you. How can we ensure that public
procurement policies will supports businesses domiciled here in the UK so that
we capture that value and return it back to the Exchequer through public
procurement? >> So the simple answer is because of Brexit we can now do that.
One of the advantages of leaving the EU is that we are now in charge of what's
called procurement policy. What does procurement policy mean? It's the policy
that you described is how the government and all public organizations do
contracts. How they select the people who are going to provide services to
them. And now that we've left the EU, we're in charge of writing our own rules
and we're allowed to be a little bit different about how we do that. We can
value different things. For example, is the business providing lots of
apprenticeships in the local area, employing local people, and adding all that
value that you talked about to our UK economy. So that is one of the clear
advantages of Brexit. We've got a new law that's going through parliament that
will actually implement that program, and I think it's going to be great,
particularly small businesses. And in big businesses are generally quite good
at navigating all these laws, but particularly for small and medium sized
businesses, this is going to be a real benefit and it's going to be great for
the UK economy. That's one of the practical examples of something we're doing
differently after we left the EU. Yes, sir. >> Hello, nice to have you. Really
fortunate to be here today with some of the IKEA future leaders. And we work
very much in a values based leadership. You've described some of the really
difficult decisions you have to make every day. I just wonder on a personal
level, what are the core values that inform your leadership style? >> Are they
here? Hands up in the air. Here they all are. Brilliant. Are they on a
leadership training program? Will you guys tell me actually, what do you guys
think is important? >> I think it's important to believe that IKEA [inaudible
00:26:06] we maintain integrities, we create trusting environment, we treat
people respectfully. So it's about looking after each other. They're important
things about leading and communicating that's why is so important as well. >>
I think for me as well, it's majorly comes to leading by example, so treating
people how you expect to be treated yourself. Being very open and honest about
hard times as well as good times. So that as a leader, you can come across as
somebody who is relatable and you can lead then in a strong way. But
absolutely, as Alicia said, it comes down to connecting our own personal
values to the IKEA values as well. >> I think for me, togetherness is really
important and showing that actually across our company, we all are going after
the same thing. In the same core values are important to all of us. I think
championing this movement with sustainability and showcasing the right way
forward with that, and then making sure that it's communicated across all
novels and it's not something exclusive. >> You know what? A lot of what you
said I try and do as well actually. All of you picked on a similar theme,
which is about being honest, good times and bad integrity, and trying to do
things together. I think for political leadership that's really important
because I think all of you need to have trust in your politicians. And that
comes from a couple of things. I think it comes from me being honest with you
in good times and in bad about what we're facing, what it's going to take to
fix it. Not promising solutions that I know are not going to work just because
they sound good or make my life easier. That's not acting with integrity,
that's not being honest with people, and I think people can see through that.
Like I always try, as I'm doing now, as we're talking about the economy and
inflation, not sugar coating. That this is tough and it's hard, but we're
going to get through it and that's going to mean we need to take some
difficult decisions sometimes. So I think that's an important part of building
that trust. And then the second thing is delivering on the things that you
say, which again you guys touched on. And I think lots of politics in the past
has been people promise a lot of things and then it never actually happens. I
want to restore people's trust in politics by not just being honest about what
we're doing and how we're doing it, but then actually delivering on the things
that I say. So I'm not going to promise the Earth. Promise I can fix every
single problem, but here are my five priorities. I've set them out really
clearly, and you guys should be able to hold me to account in six months, nine
months, a year, year and a half. You can say, are you making progress on the
things that you said you were going to make progress on? Are those the right
things for the country and for my family? And then you can make a judgment
about how I'm doing. But it's got to be about delivery, not just about
talking. It's got to be actually doing things. Your grandmother needs to get
her appointment and someone else's grandmother, when something happens to them
that the ambulance comes on time. That these things need to feel like they're
getting better not worse. And that's what I'm about doing and that's how you
restore trust in politics. I'm a different type of politician. I want to
change things that people do have trust. And that's about being honest with
them and about delivering on the things you say. It's actually very similar to
what you guys said. >> Thank you. >> Yes, someone at the back. >> So recent
research by Generation Logistics show that 90% of young people won't consider
logistics as a career while 40% of those see it as critical to the UK success.
So how important do you think it is that more young talent consider logistics
is a career of choice and how can we achieve that? >> Well, of course it's
important, you guys are the lifeblood of our economy. Nothing happens without
you and your colleagues doing the same jobs across the country, being involved
in it. Everything that happens has to happen through people like you,
businesses like yours, so we can't have a functioning economy without all of
you. So it's actually mission critical, how we live our lives and everything
that we're used to. I think that's a pretty compelling reason to go into it.
And the good news is that it's growing. Your industry is growing, which is
fantastic. Look the hundreds of jobs that are created here by that investment,
good jobs, doing interesting things. And the best way I think, to get young
people into it is through things like apprenticeships. And I think it's
showing young people that there's an exciting path into this new career that
they can get into quite quickly. Where they can study and earn at the same
time they can do it with other people. And that they can see there's a career
ahead of them when they can progress and keep learning new skills. And you
guys all have that opportunity. That's fantastic when you work for good
companies who are providing those opportunities, it's a really compelling
vision and we just got to get out there and communicate it. And one thing,
when it comes to apprenticeships, a lot of the focus in the past was all on
everyone going to university. We've got to make sure everyone realizes
apprenticeships are an incredible option for people. We've really improved the
quality of them. They worked brilliantly, and one of the small things we've
done which will make a difference. Those of us that went to university will
remember the UCAS form. It's a big thing that you have to do. It's a whole
process, everyone's focused on it. For the first time now, we've moved
apprenticeships onto the UCAS system in the process of doing that so it
doesn't feel like it's a whole different thing, that it's less of the
university, it's like hang on. There's lots of different options. They're all
great, and actually you should better apply and find them all on the same
system. So its small practical things like that mean that someone will see an
opportunity that might not have considered before and I think actually, you
know what, that works for me. I'm sure if any of your friends spent time with
any of you or came here, they'd be pretty inspired by what all of you are
doing and the skills you're learning and the careers you've got. And that's
probably the best thing we can do is get you guys filming a bunch of videos
and put that out there. Good. Sir. >> Thank you. You mentioned apprenticeships
and I totally agree they are really important avenue for us to build skills at
Wincanton, we have around about 335 people on program at the moment. We're big
supporters of apprenticeships, but yet we only utilize about 54% of our levy,
and we work really hard at using the levy as best we can so there's been
discussion about reforms, I understand, around apprenticeship levy, making it
more flexible so that we can give a broader pool of colleagues opportunities
for upskilling. Any update on the reforms, please? >> Yeah, I know it's
something that the Department of Education and the Treasury are talking to
businesses about, so that conversation is ongoing. One thing we have done
which should help you is allow big companies to spend their levy or transfer
it to small and medium sized businesses in their supply chain. So I think that
is a relatively new thing that I think came into force last year and that will
allow you to transfer a bulk of your budget, even if it's not your own company
into companies that work through your supply chain. That was something the
businesses talked to me about when I was chancellor and I was pleased to put
that in place. So hopefully that will help. And there's always an ongoing
conversation about what's the right flex in the apprenticeship system. For
those of you that don't know how this works, the apprenticeship levy is
something that big companies pay, they pay an apprenticeship levy, it goes
into account, and then they can use that account to spend on apprenticeships
because we want to make sure that businesses are investing in their workforces
and that's a good way to make sure they do it and your point is, could we
spend it on things that are not just apprenticeships, but maybe other skills
qualifications as well? Our challenges, we think apprenticeships are brilliant
and the gold standard, and if there was going to be flex, we want to make sure
that we're not diluting the quality of the training that people are getting.
So that's the conversations that they're having. But as I said we've already
made some changes on the small companies and supply chains and I know that
they're talking about doing more. There's a question behind you. Yes sir. >> I
think what we're seeing today is a really good example of two organizations
working together strategically to deliver a supply chain solution. I guess my
question really is, when we work in the public sector, it's not necessarily as
strategic, it's more tactical, so what advice would you give an organization
like Wincanton to work more tactically with public sector customers? And
probably more importantly, who do we talk to? >> Gosh, I've got someone here
on my team so you can talk to them after we're finished, I'll get them to come
wave at you. I'd like to think, actually, we should be working more
strategically in the public sector too, I don't want to hear that it's somehow
only tactical. Because I think back to the gentleman's question before about
procurement, actually, the government should be having good strategic
partnerships with companies in the private sector where they can deliver good
things for the country, that's obviously better for everybody. Companies that
have that certainty of slightly longer term contracts that can then invest in
their workforces properly, knowing that they've got that contract for a few
years, those seem like sensible things for the government to be doing. I'd
like to think we are doing it, but I'll make sure that we get someone to talk
to you afterwards about how we can help you guys specifically. Any other
questions? All good. All right. Fine. So we've got some media questions. I've
probably got a list somewhere here. Let's see, we start with ITV. >> Prime
Minister. You'll be aware that markets are today discounting, a significant
risk of recession, falling house prices, rising unemployment, recession a
price worth paying to get inflation down. And secondly, you just talk very
eloquently about the need to restore trust in politics and politicians, you
haven't yet told us whether you agree with the privileges committee report in
Boris Johnson. Do you agree with it? >> On your first question, Robert, nobody
wants to see a recession. Of course, I don't want to see a recession. No one
wants to see a recession. And actually part of the reason that we're seeing
inflation be higher than we had anticipated previously is because the economy
has done better. If you guys remember, everyone was forecasting that the UK
would go into a recession this year, and that hasn't happened. Defied
everyone's expectation, because the economy is performing well, jobs like
yours are all being created, companies are growing. Unemployment is at a very
low level. And of course, that is all a good thing. But the inflation
challenge has become a little bit tougher. I always want to make sure that
we're trying to grow the economy, but as I said, having inflation on its way
down to 2% that's the right priority, because all the good things that we
want, more jobs, higher wages, more investment in public services, lower
taxes, all those things. We can't have any of those things unless we get
inflation back down and then get interest rates coming down again, but that
has got to be the priority. Anyone who tells you that there's some shortcut is
not being straight with you. As much as I wish there was, there isn't so we've
got to stick to the course and that's what's going to guide my actions
throughout all of this. On your second question, I have enormous respect for
the privileges committee, support the privileges committee, and indeed respect
the vote of the house that we had on Monday regarding Boris Johnson. But what
I'd also say is, look, I'm not focused on the past, I want to look forward.
Like Boris Johnson is no longer a member of Parliament, it's right that
people, whoever they are, whatever position they hold, face the results of
their actions, that they're held accountable for their actions. That's
happened. He's no longer a member of Parliament. We've got to focus on the
future, and that's what I'm doing as your Prime Minister. I think that's what
you want me to do, is focus on all the things that we've talked about today.
And with regard to that in general, I wasn't there to vote because I was at a
charity dinner as you know. But I'm someone who took a very difficult decision
a while ago to resign from Boris Johnson's government. It's not an easy thing
to do to resign as being chancellor. That's a big deal. I did that because as
I said at the time, I disagree with his approach to government. So I think
that tells you that I'm prepared to act according to my values and the
standards that I want to see and that wasn't happening. I said, "I didn't
agree with the approach." I said that in my resignation letter, and that's why
I resigned. In terms of that particular thing, because I think standards
matter, as I think you said Alicia first, like integrity matters, it matters
in business, it matters in public life too and I want to act in a way that
means you guys can have confidence that I'm acting with integrity, with
professionalism, and there's accountability. And as you saw in that situation,
there was accountability and you guys will be able to hold me to account for
delivering all the things that we've talked about today. Next, Sky News. >>
Thank you. Prime Minister, you said today you want to be honest, that you're
someone who is straight with people. Are you being straight when you say that
everything is going to be okay, that we're 100% going to get through this,
that you will have inflation by the end of the year? Do you regret making that
a personal priority and should people trust you if that doesn't happen? And
can I also ask, you're basically asking people to hold their nerve and suffer
pain in the medium term, do you accept that will cost you at the ballot box?
>> So I absolutely don't think it was a mistake to set as my number 1
priority, halving inflation. I am ambitious for our country and I want to
deliver on the things that are going to make most difference to all of you and
your families, and we've got to get inflation down. And at the time I set that
target actually, lots of people said it wasn't ambitious enough, that it was
too easy, and I knew that wasn't true. I knew at the time that actually
getting inflation down would be tough and I wanted to set an ambitious target
that we would work really hard to get to. I'm sure when you talk to your young
leaders, you guys talk in your businesses about setting ambitious targets. You
will strive to get them and look, has it got harder? Yeah, of course, it's got
harder to meet that target. At the last couple of months have shown that it's
got harder, but it's certainly not impossible, and I'm going to still give
absolutely everything I've got to delivering on it and more broadly, we've got
to keep getting inflation down because even once it's halved, that's not
enough. We've got to get it all the way back down to two percent, that's our
normal inflation target. But I wanted to say very clearly, this was a
priority, and it's something I'm working towards. You guys will be the judges
of that, and you'll be able to see where we are in six months, nine months a
year, and you'll see how I'm doing, whether I'm doing everything I can,
whether you think it's reasonable or not, but I'll leave that up to you. But
just want to let you know that I think that is priority number 1 and I'm doing
everything I can to bring it down. And that is how you will restore trust in
politics. It's because you set out very clearly what you're going to do, then
you go about your hardest to deliver it, and then people can be the judges of
whether that's worked or not. GB News. >> Thank you. Yesterday to [inaudible
00:41:44] Prime Minister's questions, you spoke about labor policy that, in
your view, would raise inflation. You've mentioned some of those things. Today
you mentioned banning supplies of new energy in the North Sea, about giving
into unions unaffordable pay demands. You said that would make the situation
worse. Yet, when you became Prime Minister, you raised benefits by 10.1%. You
raised. >> Doing that at a time like this is the wrong thing to do. It would
make the situation worse and I wouldn't do that. Yes, Labor Party policy is do
not do any more exploration of energy supplies in the North Sea. I think
that's a mistake. I believe in net zero, we're going to get to net zero, but
we're going to get there in decades, not overnight. Between now and then, we
are still going to need oil and gas, and if we've got supplies of oil and gas
here in the UK, it seems to me absurd not to use those. A, because it will
create jobs, but B, because it improves our energy security and it reduces
inflation. So we've seen over the last year what happens when energy dictators
around the world are able to hold us to ransom. So actually, cutting off our
own supplies of energy seems to be an incredibly short-sided policy, it would
definitely make situation worse. And lastly, on public sector pay, again. I
value our public sector workers. They do an incredible job, whether they're in
the NHS, whether they're teachers, all of them. Now, everyone would like to be
paid more, but I have to be cognizant of what we can afford, what's
responsible, and it would be being dishonest with people to say, great, I'm
going to borrow a ton of money so I can give you a generous pay rise., make my
life easier for a bit. But knowing full well that all I've done is fuel more
inflation and higher interest rates and that extra pay packet you got one
month ultimately is just going to get eaten up and then some because we're
dealing with more inflation down the line. I'm not going to do that. It's
difficult for me. Would my life be easier if I was able to say yes or wrong?
It would be. But it's the wrong thing for all of you, it's the wrong thing for
the country, and it's also the wrong thing for those public sector workers, as
I said because they will also pay the price of higher inflation in the long
run. So that's my approach on that. BBC. >> Thank you, Prime Minister. Chris
Mason, BBC News. You've said today, you've tried to reassure people this
afternoon that it's going to be okay. Isn't the blunt truth that for some
people, it won't be okay if you're going to be able to get inflation down? >>
Well, Chris, I've never said this is going to be easy. Getting inflation down,
I've always said, this is going to be tough and it's going to take time. But
I'm determined to do it and it's right that we do it, because in the long run,
that is the best way to help everyone, because inflation eats away at the
money in your pocket, and that's wrong. And that's why I feel a deep moral
responsibility to get it down, and I'm prepared to do what it takes to do
that. That doesn't mean making some difficult decisions, but those are the
right decisions for the country in the long run. Because if we don't get a
grip of this, it will just get worse and it will last for longer and it hurts,
particularly those on the lowest incomes. Inflation is always the worst for
people who are the most vulnerable. And that's why, as I said, I feel a deep
moral responsibility to get it down, and that's what we're determined to do,
and I'm being straight with people. It's not easy, it will take time, and it
requires difficult decisions. But that's what responsible leadership looks
like. We've talked about it. We heard it very eloquently from all three of
you. That's the type of leaders you aspire to be. That's the type of leader
that I'm, and that's what the government's going to deliver. We've got the FT.
>> Hi. It's Anna Gross from the Financial Times. You warned about the risk of
inflation when you were Chancellor, do you think that the Bank of England has
moved too slowly, has done too little, too late to tame inflation? >> I
support the Bank of England in what they're doing, and I'd point back to what
I said earlier. What we're grappling with here as a country is something that
many other countries are grappling with at the same time. So interest rates in
America, in Canada, in Australia, in New Zealand, as I mentioned, all pretty
similar to the interest rates here. Interest rates in Europe are at the
highest they've been in 20 years, just to give you some context, and all
central banks around the world are worried about the persistence of inflation
and are taking steps to bring it down by raising interest rates. So that is
the global context for what we're facing. It's not unique to the UK, and it's
right that the Bank of England takes strong action to bring inflation down.
They've got a target to get it back down to two percent. It's right that they
deliver on that because ultimately it is the best thing for the country. There
is no short-term, easy fix to this. There's no shortcut. Anyone standing here
telling you there's some shortcut is not being straight with you. So those of
us who are responsible for this have to take the responsible decisions in the
long-term interest of our country and all of you. That's what I'm doing and
that's what the Bank of England are doing too. And lastly, we've got The
Telegraph. >> Thanks, Prime Minister. Dominic Penna, Telegraph. Is there now
zero chance for a major tax court this year or is that something that is still
possible and your own backbenchers who are calling for tax court, so they
being irresponsible? >> So it goes back to what I said to all of you before.
Would I love to cut your taxes tomorrow? Yeah, of course, I would. I mean, I'm
a conservative politician who wouldn't want to cut people's taxes. Do you
think if I thought that was a good thing to do, I wouldn't have done it? I
would. But it goes back to what I was saying before, borrowing lots of money
to do things that sound great isn't the responsible approach, it's not going
to help anyone in the long run and same way, I talk about public sector pay,
tax cut spending, and ultimately if the government is having to borrow money
to do all those things, it just puts fuel on the fire of inflation, makes it
worse, makes it last longer, means interest rates will go up even more, and
that's not going to do one any favors. And you talk about tax cuts. You know
what? The biggest tax cut that this government could deliver for you and for
everyone else is to halve inflation. That is a massive tax cut because there
is inflation right now that is making everyone poorer, that is eating into the
pounds in your pocket, it's eroding your paychecks, it's pushing up the prices
of everything, it's eating into your savings , pushing up interest rates.
Inflation is the tax. If we can halve inflation and then get it down to two
percent over time, that is the biggest tax cut we could deliver. So that's
what I'm focused on doing. Good. Guys, thank you so much for having me. It's
been great. It's really nice to meet you, particularly, you guys who I thought
were incredibly eloquent talking about what you're doing. Actually just fills
me with enormous confidence, because I talked about this and yeah, we've got
some tough stuff to get through. We will get through it and we should be
confident about the future because of people like you. Talking in such an
inspiring way about what you want to do when your careers progress, your story
replicated across the country is why all of us should have confidence in the
future of our country because we've got great days ahead of us and people like
you are going to help us realize it. My job is to give you every opportunity
and support your success, and that's what I'm trying to do. Good. Thanks very
much