L

Lord Eatwell (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 1 December 2025

Debate

OBR Forecasts

Contribution

My Lords, the Opposition suggested that markets were misled. Does the Minister agree that, if markets had been misled by the Chancellor’s speech on 4 November, there would have been a sharp market reaction when the truth was revealed in the Budget? But quite contrary to the erroneous statement by the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, there was no sharp reaction. Indeed, the markets after the Budget displayed a similar rate of return on 10-year bonds as they did immediately after the speech on 4 November. There was no significant change because they were not misled. The fiscal balance in both cases was roughly the same. Do these erroneous statements not suggest that the Chancellor’s critics have a lamentable lack of understanding of how the financial markets actually work?

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