Lord Livermore (Lab)

I agree with the noble Lord on that point. He is far more expert in these matters than me and was in the Treasury through many more crises than I have been, so he has great experience in this matter. He is absolutely right that the IMF showed last week that the impact on the size of our economy and GDP could be significant. No one quite knows yet what the full impact of this conflict will be; that will depend on its duration and severity. However, we must be agile in responding appropriately at each moment. The noble Lord is absolutely right that, as we respond to this crisis, we should learn from the mistakes of the past. The previous Government, as I have said already, pushed up borrowing, interest rates, inflation and mortgage costs with an unfunded, untargeted package of support under Liz Truss. That package gave the most support to the wealthiest households: between 2022 and 2024, under the previous Government, households in the top income decile received an average of £1,350 of direct energy bill support. That left us with high levels of national debt and a cheque written then for a bill that is still being paid today. The party opposite talks about the importance of inflation, but we will not tackle inflation through an unfunded, untargeted package of support like we saw in the past.