Mrs Kemi Badenoch

The Chancellor should have set out a plan for 3% today. Now he is the man who is increasing risk to personnel on operations. He is the man who is making our country less safe. He has failed his own test. This is on him, and no one will ever forget. If he had any decency, he would resign again today. Yes, the Chancellor has funded the defence investment plan, and that is welcome, and yes, there is more support for Ukraine, and that is welcome, but he said himself in June that that was not enough. He has given himself a bit of breathing space until next year. Instead what we have is a plan to have a plan. I bet Putin is really scared now. We know that finding the money is difficult, but it can be done. On the Opposition Benches, we have found the savings to get to 3%, because we know Britain is facing very serious threats. The defence funding that the Government have announced today relies on more borrowing. Let me explain why that will only make us weaker. The OBR confirmed today that Britain’s national debt is forecast to increase again. We are borrowing just to pay the interest on that debt. The credit card has been maxed out and the Chancellor is taking out new credit cards just to pay the interest on the old ones. The three Labour Budgets will have added more than £260 billion to the national debt. Our great grandchildren will be paying for Labour’s total lack of self-restraint. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is fantasising about rejoining the EU. There is just one problem: under Labour, Britain is now borrowing so much that we would not even qualify for EU entry. The Chancellor clings to the IMF’s praise of the Government’s deficit reduction plans, but the truth is that the IMF has to take at face value the idea that Labour will cut public spending massively just before the next election. Really? Are these MPs signed up to the cuts in those plans? These are the same MPs who voted down the most modest welfare reforms in the history of this House. They are never going to cut spending. That is why this month, the IFS described the Government’s plans as “a work of fiction”. I can tell the House who else is not fooled by Labour’s fantasy figures: the bond markets. Britain is now paying more to borrow than at any point in the past 30 years. Those borrowing costs are hurting people today. Businesses are struggling to afford loans because of rising interest rates. Five-year mortgage rates are now above 6%. Rates are far higher now than they ever were under us. We have the utter cheek of the Chancellor and Labour MPs raising the mini-Budget when Government borrowing rates are far higher now. They are higher than under any Conservative Prime Minister. These are their interest rates; these are their borrowing costs; and this is their mess—they need to own it. The Chancellor knows that next week interest rates are expected to rise again. Only the Labour party would think that the answer is to spend more money. [Interruption.] I know the Education Secretary cannot count, so she thinks this is all fantastic. Come on, have you got something more to add? Can you add?