John Healey: “My observation on the banks is that people too often see them as big, distant financial institutions, when they are…”

It's a sign of resilience in the UK economy that some had not expected

I want the budget to be a budget that gives Britain a bit of breathing space – but also reinforces the strength of our fiscal plans and the strength of our resilience and our economy for the future.

We will meet those fiscal rules, and I think one of the hallmarks of the IMF’s backing of our fiscal plans is recognition that there isn’t just a forecast for the future, but there’s some evidence of performance already.

I’m working on different ways we can step up support for Ukraine: military, diplomatic and economic, and you know, if anybody needed any reminder of that, it’s what we see coming out of Ukraine, with [Vladimir] Putin targeting these energy…