John Healey

Our social security system must always be there for those who can never work. But for everyone else, benefits should be a bridge to work, to wider participation, to a better life, not a trap that people can’t escape.

We have to bring the benefits bill down.

Fundamentally, what we need is a settlement in the Middle East.

These times demand of us a greater resolve, a greater determination and a greater hope.

The rock of fiscal discipline. It underwrites every promise this government makes … we can’t succeed without it.

Britain has it harder now. We had 13 years of flatlining tory growth in living standards when Cameron’s austerity gutted our public services, when Johnson’s Brexit hammered our exports and Truss’s mini budget crashed our economy.

The money New Labour had in the nineties is simply not there now.

It is not progressive to allow a bigger and bigger benefits bill, and a system which offers an income but doesn't offer a future.

The best thing we can offer a young person is not a benefit payment - it's a first job with training and a wage.

5% represented a 'reasonable ceiling' on the tax.

And every chancellor would say that’s for the budget, and I’ll set out my plans and the future route for government for this country at that budget.

The prime minister has said, like I have, that we must bring down welfare costs, but we are also responding to the extreme pressure that is there in wider markets.

I want people to feel confident about Britain and our future.

I want to see wealth creation in this country. I want to see businesses make a profit… (and) we need an active, accountable state at all levels to remove blockages and create the conditions for more investment.

Since 2022, we have been paying that Truss penalty as we battle to re-establish belief in Britain and the UK’s fiscal sustainability.

The prime minister and I are in lockstep in our commitment to meeting the fiscal rules at the upcoming Budget, to balancing the books with a buffer to protect against uncertainty.

If I respond to speculation now, that will only fuel more speculation, and it's quite right.

I want to see this country as a country of wealth creation. I want our government decisions and policies to raise the levels of confidence, and investment, and profit in British business.

Whether it is the cost of business or the cost of living, the only way we deal with these in the long term is growth.

Let me be clear. I recognise that the cost of business – that’s energy bills, regulation burdens, planning constraints, labour costs – have grown since Covid. And I want to draw the line.

This is not sentimentality, it’s supply side economics.

[We are] deeply concerned about the cost of living and cost to business. In the long run the only way that you deal with that is greater growth. I put growth at the heart of my commitment. This is my mission as chancellor.

A person coming off benefits and into work saves the taxpayer money. And that becomes a win-win when those people start paying tax themselves.

I want to be the chancellor that gets things done and I want to see growth driven from more places across the UK.