Rachel Reeves

It is part of that commitment because those five cuts in interest rates, as you know, by the Bank of England, but they've only been possible because of that stability with return to the economy.

Well, if you look today at my conference speech, I'll be setting out a youth guarantee.

Because at the moment, we've got a million young people who are not in education, employment or training.

That's one in eight young people.

I'm not going to let that stand.

It is a waste of their talent and potential, but it's also a huge waste for business and a huge waste for taxpayers that we are subsidising young people to be out of work when we want them to be in training or in paid employment.

And that's one example of how we're reforming the welfare state to get the costs down and at the same time bringing more people into work.

Well, that's not acceptable.

Welfare is not an alternative to work.

The welfare state is there if you need it.

You can't say, oh, no, actually, I'd rather remain on benefits than take that job opportunity.

And that's a really important part of what I'm setting out today.

It builds on what the previous Labour government did under Tony Blair with the New Deal for young people that said there was not an option just to stay on benefits.

And that's the same with me as Chancellor.

Well, what I did last year at the budget was draw a line under the economic and fiscal mismanagement of the previous government.

And that did require difficult decisions on taxes.

So there won't be more of them?

Well, I think all of your viewers can see that the last year has brought its fair share of global challenges.

Yeah.

the global cost of borrowing, the tariffs from the United States, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the disruptions to supply chains, Russia's intensifying aggression.