Live: Keir Starmer defends Budget after claims Rachel Reeves misled public over tax hikes

It's also counterproductive. On Wednesday last week after the budget the Chancellor and I went to a hospital and we were speaking to the staff who'd gathered there and we told them that we're lifting the two child limit and they cheered and they did so and they said to us that matters because you wouldn't believe how many children come through our doors of our hospital because of poverty. Poverty in Britain today. So this is a public services issue. It can help to lift the pressure on the NHS. It's an economic issue, a sound investment in our long-term potential and it's a fairness issue and this is what the Tories need to understand about the Britain that they built. Three quarters of children growing up in poverty today come from working families. Now some of the parents I met downstairs, some of the parents I met in Rugby were on the road last Thursday. They told me as so many parents do that they're working harder and harder but their wages struggle to meet their costs and I know what that feels like. I remember my family sitting around the kitchen table worrying about the bills. How are we going to pay them and we as a family couldn't pay them and that's why in our case our phone was cut off and that is still the reality of Britain for far too many people and so yes I am proud. I'm proud we scrapped the two child limit. I'm proud we're lifting over half a million children out of poverty. Proud we raised the national minimum wage again. That is what a Labour government is for, making life better for working families, unlocking their potential and giving our children a fair chance to get on and that is the story of the budget. There were necessary choices, of course there were. Fair choices I would argue. Tax rises do make life harder for people. I understand that. It's obvious and I'm not going to pretend that there aren't alternatives. Politics is always about making choices. We could have cut public services. We could have ignored child poverty. We could have rolled the dice with extra borrowing but I firmly believe that those options have been tested to destruction. I mean we all know the risks of reckless borrowing. That is the path that Liz trusted and you can see the cost in any bill, mortgage, car loan, anything affected by interest rates. But also look at the OBR's analysis of productivity and it's crystal clear to me that austerity scarred the long-term productive capability of this country. So why would we repeat it? That is what we inherited. Public finances and public services in total crisis. Growth weak for years. But if you'd said to me 17 months ago on the first day of government that by now we would have cut NHS waiting times, cut immigration, cut child poverty by a record amount. If you'd said to me that Britain would now be cutting borrowing faster than any other G7 country without cutting public investment. That our fiscal headroom is up significantly. Economic growth is beating the forecast with wages up more since the election than in a decade of the previous government. If you'd said to me because of all that we can tackle the cost of living for working people. Freezing rail fares, freezing prescription charges, freezing fuel duty, slashing child care costs, driving down mortgages, taking £150 off your energy bills, £300 for poorer households. Then I would say yes. That is a record to be proud of and I am proud. I'm proud the public services, I am proud the public finances and our public services are moving in the right direction because we confronted reality. We took control of our future and Britain is now back on track. And look, I am also confident we have now walked through the narrowest part of the tunnel. Because while I know it's still hard for lots of people, while I know the cost of living crisis has not gone away, in the year ahead you will see the benefits of our approach. Not just in the national statistics but in your communities. You will see a country building its future with new homes and infrastructure, 2,000 free breakfast clubs, hundreds of school-based nurseries open by September. You will see 3,000 neighbourhood police officers on your streets by March. A new era of security for 11 million renters starting in May. Hundreds of thousands of parents taking advantage of our free child care expansion. Almost 120 community diagnostic centres open seven days a week by April. You will see NHS waiting times coming down further. Wages still rising faster than prices. Immigration still falling. And bit by bit, you will see a country that no longer feels the burden of decline or the sense that things can never get better. A Britain with its confidence and its future back. Now, take our energy policy. That's £150 of your energy bill. £300 if you're really struggling. Now, think about what that means to a family. Worried about whether to put the heating on, on a cold day. Or worried that if they switch it on for too long, they might have to cancel a day out with their kids. It's not just money. It's security. It's having the freedom to make choices that help your family. Or think about our child care investment. 30 hours free for every child between nine months and four years old. A massive difference to the cost of living. Thousands of pounds back in the pockets of working parents. Real help getting parents and carers back to work, especially for women. And that is good for growth. But it's also good for our children's potential. I visit primary schools all the time. When we're not getting told off for teachers repeatedly say to me, this is across the country, that some kids arrive at reception reading books, ready to learn, while others are still in nappies. I am sick of hearing those stories. Right across the country. Think about that. Inequality, aged just four, baked in for life. And likely to last a whole life. That's why everything we're doing for children is a game changer for our potential. We're giving every child the best start in life. Every single child equal at the starting line of their education. And that's what a Labour government is for. And look, when it comes to economic growth and living standards, we're confident we can beat the forecasts. We've already beaten them this year. We are in control of our future. We've already struck trade deals that are attracting billions of pounds of investment. We're removing barriers to business right across the economy. In planning, industrial policy, pension reform, artificial intelligence, capital investment. And right at the heart of the budget, we have a package of measures that give the green light for the world's best entrepreneurs to start, scale and list their companies in Britain. But we have to be clear, at this stage of our plan, the most important things that we can do for growth, the most important things that we can do for business, is first, to drive inflation down, so that interest rates come down further still, and the cost of business investment comes down with it. And second, to retain market confidence that allows for real economic stability, so that businesses can plan with certainty. That is what the country needs most right now. It is what the budget secured. And that's why our choices were fair, they were necessary, and they were fundamentally good for growth. But I will level with you. As the budget showed, the path to a Britain that is truly built for all requires many more decisions that are not cost-free, and they're not easy. We can all see the challenge. Low productivity, the result of an economy scarred by austerity, by Brexit, and by consistently failing to unlock the nation's potential. So we need a productivity revolution. And as our plan runs to the end of Parliament, I want to set out some of the next steps in our economic renewal, so that our progress can be fairly judged. First, regulation. Now, exactly a week ago, John Fingalton reported on our nuclear industry. He found that pointless gold plating, unnecessary red tape, well-intentioned but fundamentally misguided environmental regulations. And I quote, it's quite a stark quote, he said, a mindset that favours process over outcome, has all made Britain the most expensive place to build nuclear power. Now, I agree with him. In fact, I would go further. Because the truth is, we see that story repeated again and again, right across our economy. For years, Britain did not have a proper industrial strategy. For years, it cut public investment. For years, it did not have a planning framework, or frankly, a government that would quickly approve new railways, new tramlines, data centres, laboratories, power stations, wind farms, even whole towns. So, guided by a simple truth, that rooting out excessive costs in every corner of our economy is an essential step to cutting the cost of living, and creating more dynamic markets for business. We will also clear the path for British business. And therefore, in addition to accepting the Fingalton recommendations, I'm asking the business secretary to apply these lessons across the entire industrial strategy. Second, welfare. For too long, our welfare system has trapped people in poverty. And poverty is always a barrier to potential. That's why we scrapped the two-child limit. But we also have to confront the reality that our welfare state is trapping people not just in poverty, but out of work. Young people in particular. And that is a poverty of ambition. And so, while we will invest in apprenticeships, and make sure young people without a job have a guaranteed offer of training or work, we must also reform the welfare state itself. That is what renewal demands. This is not about propping up a broken status quo. Nor is it because we want to look somehow politically tough. The Tories played that game, and the welfare bill went up by £88 billion. And they left children too poor to eat, and wrote young people off as too ill to work. That was a total failure. So we've asked Alan Milburn to report on the whole issue of young people in activity and work. Because we need to remove all the barriers which hold back the potential of our young people. Because if you're ignored early in your career, if you're not given the support you need to overcome your mental health issues, or you're simply written off because you're neurodivergent or disabled, then it can trap you in a cycle of worklessness and dependency for decades. That costs the country money, is bad for our productivity, and most importantly of all, is a massive waste of potential. And any Labour Party worth a name cannot ignore that. Third, and finally, trade. Vital for productivity, essential for growth, crucial to the cost of living. And let me be crystal clear, there is no credible economic vision for Britain that does not position us as an open trading economy. So we must all now confront the reality that the Brexit deal we have significantly hurt our economy. And so for economic renewal, we have to keep reducing friction. We have to keep moving towards a closer relationship with the EU. And we have to be grown up about that, to accept that this will require trade-offs. That applies to our trading relations right across the world. And as you've seen already with this government, there are deals to be done if you're committed to building relationships. That's what we've done with the US, it's what we've done with India, and it's what we've done with the EU. And we will keep going. We will continue to reject drift, to confront reality, and take control of our future. That is what the budget achieved last week. And we will build on it a long-term plan for the economic renewal of this country. A Britain that is free from decline, confident about its future, and with the potential of every single person unlocked, truly built for all. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm now going to take a number of questions from the media. I've got a list here. It starts with Chris Mason, BBC. I see Chris here. Thank you, Prime Minister. Chris Mason, BBC News. As a former lawyer, you'll be familiar with the concept of people offering the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Isn't the reality that in failing to be candid about the breadth of what she knew at her pre-budget news conference, the Chancellor misled us? And if I may, on reform of the welfare system, how fundamental is it to you that the benefits bill starts to fall? Thank you. Well, look, on the build-up to the budget, let me just step through that in some detail. Because there was no VR productivity review. The result of that was there was £16 billion less than we might otherwise have had. That's a difficult starting point for any budget. We had already made commitments, which I think I've expressed to you and many others many times over, that we were going to protect our public services, particularly the NHS, to cut borrowing costs and to bear down on the cost of living. So we had on the one hand £16 billion less than we might otherwise have had. We had clear commitments that we'd made throughout the process as to what it was we were going to achieve. Therefore, against that backdrop, it was inevitable that we would always have to raise revenue. So there's no misleading there. During the overall process, the numbers improved, and there was a point at which we thought, myself included, that we might have to reach for a manifesto breach of some significance. I didn't want to get to that place, but I recognised we might have to. As the process then continued, it became clear to me and others that we might be able to do what we needed to do with our priorities without that manifesto breach. That's what we did with the fair and necessary decisions that we took, which did, to root back to where we started, make good on the principles, which was protecting public services and the NHS in particular, where record amounts have gone in, and hence the waiting times coming down. Which did help with borrowing costs, because I was determined that we needed to have bigger headroom than we had last time, and we more than doubled it, which has been a very significant part of the budget. Not easy to do, for obvious reasons. We were able to and are able to bear down on the cost of living, hence the £150 of people's energy bills, and the measures we're able to take in relation to two-child benefit. The review put us in a bad place to start with. We worked through our principles. There was a point at which I thought we might have to breach the manifesto. I was always wanting to know if there were alternatives to that, and the point came when there was an alternative to that, and that's the route that we took. Thank you very much on that issue. On welfare, look, there are a number of aspects to this. The welfare bill has gone up extraordinarily under the last government, but there is also what I would call a moral mission. I've been particularly concerned about young people, the best part of a million young people, who are not in work and not learning, and over and above any other issue, I think it's a moral issue, because I know all the evidence points to this, that if you're not earning or learning at that age, the likelihood is it's going to be that much more difficult to get into earning and learning later in your life, and therefore there's a real moral element to this as well. Thank you very much, Chris. Can I go to Sky, Beth, please? Thank you very much, Beth Rigby, Sky News Prime Minister. We found out from the Office of Budget Responsibility that the Chancellor, with your backing, misled the public on November the 4th when she warned about a black hole in the public finances without telling us the second bit, that higher than expected tax receipts meant the economy was in a much healthier position than the Chancellor publicly suggested to all of us and to the country. A Cabinet Minister has told me this morning they do feel misled. How do you respond to that as Prime Minister, and can you really commit to driving through welfare cuts, given that some at your top table don't have confidence in you? Thank you. Thank you very much, Beth. Look, there was no misleading, and I simply don't accept, and I was receiving the numbers, that being told that the OBR productivity review means you've got £16 billion less than you would otherwise have had shows that you've got an easy starting point. Yes, of course all the other figures have to be taken into account, but we started the process with significantly less than we would otherwise have had. That productivity review or review like that hasn't been done, I think, for 15 years. This is not an annual exercise. It's an exercise that was done this year. I'm not sure why it wasn't done at the end of the last government, if I'm honest about it, because that would have seemed to me a sensible time to have done it, but it was done. The net result was £16 billion less than you would otherwise have got. That meant if we measured against our objectives, which is protecting public services, doing what we could on the headroom, which I really wanted to do this time for reasons that are well understood in terms of the stability that it gives. I wanted to more than double the headroom, and to bear down on the cost of living, because I know that for families and communities across the country, that is the single most important issue, wants to achieve all those things, starting that exercise with £16 billion less than we might otherwise have had. Of course there are other figures in this, but there's no pretending that that's a good starting point for a government. It isn't. To suggest that a government that is saying that's not a good starting point is misleading. It is wrong, in my view. As I say, there was a point at which we did think we would have to breach the manifesto in order to achieve what we wanted to achieve. Later on, it became possible to do it without the manifesto breach, given the choice between the two. I didn't want to breach the manifesto, and that's why we came to the decisions that we did. On the question about welfare, I do think that this is a moral mission. I don't think we can simply leave the best part of a million young people, not earning or learning, and walk past it. Just as I fundamentally believe we've got to lift children out of poverty, that is a moral and personal mission for me. It always has been. So too, I feel very strongly about the million young people who we've got a cohort going through who, unless we intervene and do something, could well spend the rest of their lives in that kind of dependency. I think that's wrong in principle, and that's why I want to deal with it. Thank you, Beth. ITV, Robert Peston. Hello, Prime Minister. For my sins, I've reported on budgets for 35 years. That's a good record. Truthfully, I have never seen preparations for a budget as shambolic as these, except for Liz Truss's mini-budget, and we all know how that ended. Is this the Chancellor's fault, or is it your fault? Just briefly, you mentioned you want to drive faster on trade. Your current proposals for the EU are not economically significant. Are you going to drive harder and faster in getting a better trade deal with the EU? Well, Robert, let me just deal with the substance of the budget, because it's really important that we focus on that, in my view. We have protected our public services and our NHS. That is hugely important. Our NHS was on its knees after 14 years of the last government. Now we're bringing waiting times down. That is not easy. It requires record investment. It requires decisions to be made, fair and necessary decisions, and I'm proud of that. I'm proud of that. That is an outcome of the budget. We have over doubled the headroom than the headroom we had before, and every business knows that that helps with stability and certainty, which is what they're looking for above all else, and they know that that has an impact on inflation, which impacts them. So I'm proud that we've done that under the budget, and we've borne down on the cost of living. I'm proud that we've lifted half a million children out of poverty. I think it's appalling. I think the idea we've had for the best part of 10 years, that if you have this cap in place, it would have any effect other than dragging hundreds of thousands of children into poverty, has been tried and tested to destruction. The only effect of it was to drag hundreds of thousands of children into poverty, and we're ending that under this budget, and I'm proud of that. And I'm also proud of the fact that we took the decision not just to freeze railfares, freeze prescriptions, but to take down energy bills by 150 pounds. Now again, in the hospital that we went to on the afternoon of the budget, when we told them that, they broke out in a clap. Because they knew what it would mean to them. They knew what it would mean to them. Whatever happens in the commons and the to-ing and fro-ing in the common, go and talk to staff in the NHS, and they clap when you tell them you'll bring down our energy bill. So I'm glad we're now on the substance of the budget, and on the substance of the budget, I'd defend it any day of the week. They're the right steps for our country, and I'm proud that we've taken them. On trade, Robert, look, we do need to get closer to the EU. It is clear from all of the analysis that the deal that we've got has hurt our economy. That's why we've rebuilt relations and reset relations with the EU, and I'm proud that we've done that. That is why we're moving forward. We had the mandates agreed for the SPS agreement, and that will drive down costs in supermarkets significantly, particularly food costs, and the emission trading scheme just in the last week or two. So we're making progress on that front, and that goes in addition to the other trade deals that we've done with countries in the US that we did, and I remember the days when people were saying to me, you can't have a deal with the US and a deal with the EU when we've got both, and the deal that we did with India, which it had been in the making, I think, for eight years until we came along and actually did the deal. So I'm proud that we're making that progress. Thank you very much. I'll go to Chris Hope from GB News. Chris. Chris Hope, GB News. Prime Minister, you wanted to tread lightly on our lives before you were elected. You were different from the Tory party, but aren't you exactly the same? From David Lammy repeatedly not being clear about an escaped migrant in the House of Commons, to Rachel Reeves talking about a black hole that wasn't actually there, now you want to cut benefits, but trust matters. How can our viewers trust anything you say? Well, Chris, I simply don't accept the starting proposition. I'm really sorry. When I was told that we'd started the budget process minus £16 billion, I didn't cheer. I didn't think it was good. I thought it was a very bad starting position. I was curious as to why the Productivity Review had been done this year and not previously, but there we are. That's the beast. It's done, and the price is calculated, and I'm handed the tab, minus £16 billion. I'm not suggesting the other figures aren't there, but it is not. I won't accept the proposition that somehow this was a good starting point. I'm £16 billion down on what I thought I'd have, and I know the impact that's going to have on your viewers, because I know for them that the cost of living is the single most important issue. I know for them, they are going to be worried at the beginning of the month in January is their season ticket going up, because they normally get whacked with that pretty early in January. Prescription charges matter to them, and their energy bills matter to them, and there are choices therefore that can or can't be done if you start with minus £16 billion. I know it'll be put to me many, many times. I simply don't accept the proposition that somehow starting your budget process minus £16 billion is a particularly good starting point. If that hadn't happened, I'd have had £16 billion more to weigh in the options and the choices that we made. Two-thirds of the hedgerow is £16 billion, so you can see the significance of that amount of money. I think all I can do is explain the impact that these decisions have on your viewers, and to assure them that I am well aware that the number one issue for them is the cost of living, and that's why in the budget and all the other decisions. Last week, we were doing free school meals, free breakfast clubs, free childcare. All of these are good for children in their own right, but they're also really important cost of living measures as well. I think for many of your viewers, they will, I hope, be pleased to see things like those measures going in. Childcare is a real game-changer for so many parents and carers across the whole country. Thank you very much, Chris. Aubrey from The Times. Good morning, Prime Minister. Aubrey Allegretti from The Times. Given we now know that actually you had a budget surplus of at least £4 billion before Rachel Reeves gave her press conference, which set hairs running and fuelled all this speculation, isn't it misleading of her to have still then not ruled out an income tax rise and only given us one side of the story after she'd been made aware that things were better than anticipated? Do you think that the OBR has overstepped its remit by publishing what forecasts it gave to the Treasury, and when, or actually, do you think that having more transparency like that is a good thing? Thank you. Well, Aubrey, I've been through this a number of times, but obviously at the early stage, it's very important not to rule out steps. It's a process that goes on, as you know, for some weeks until the final decisions are made, but to be told at the beginning of the process you're £16 billion worse off than you might otherwise have been is a significantly difficult starting point. Look, we could have made other choices. I could have said, I know we said we would take the NHS, but I've decided now not to. We're going to cut the funding to the NHS and let it go back to where it was under the last government. I wasn't going to do that. We could have said, well, I wanted to more than double the headroom, but we're not going to do that anymore. I was concerned about that and wanted to make sure we had a significant headroom for reasons that are obvious to the markets and to business, and we could have said we're not going to bother about any other cost of living measures. We know it's the number one concern to voters, but we're just not going to do it. I fundamentally disagree with that, and therefore, of course, it was right that we flagged that we started in this position, and my strong view is it would have been wrong to rule out measures that would have to be taken as a result, and in fact, were taken, because there were tax rises in the budget, as you and others have pointed out to me a number of times. In relation to publishing the figures, look, that's a matter for Richard Hughes, I think, to explain rather than me. Good. I've got Guardian. Jess. Hi there, Prime Minister. Jess Elgott from the Guardian. You've said a few times in this speech that you don't believe or will beat the OBR's gloomy forecasts on growth or living standards. You're clearly very angry at the timing of the productivity downgrade, and you've given them figures that you know you'll probably never have to do on spending cuts before the next election. What is the point of the OBR if it clearly doesn't command your confidence? Well, I'm not angry at the productivity review. It's a good thing that reviews like that are done from time to time. I'm bemused. Myself, I feel that doing it at the end of last government and before we started might have been a good point to do a productivity review, so we could know exactly what we were confronted with. Doing it 15, 16 months into a government, it had to be done sometime, but picking up the tab for the last government's failure has been the nature of the beast, frankly, for the last 16 months, but it was given a special emphasis in that exercise. So I'm not angry. I'm just bemused as to why it wasn't done at the end of the government rather than done now. But I'm not saying that these reviews aren't important, et cetera. On beating the forecast, look, I am confident, and I'm confident because the forecast that was given to us for 2025 for economic growth was 1%, and it came in last week at 1.5%. That's a 50% overreach on the forecast. So I know these targets can be beaten, and we are absolutely out to defy the forecasts and beat them, just as we've already done this year. On the OBR, I'm very supportive of the OBR. I'm very supportive of the OBR. It is, in my view, vital for stability and inbuilt in our fiscal rules, which I've said a number of times are ironclad. So, look, I'm not going to suggest that what happened last week, which was the entire budget being published before the Chancellor got to her feet, was not anything other than a serious error. This was market-sensitive information. It was a massive discourtesy to Parliament. It's a serious error, and there's an investigation that's going on. But as for the OBR itself, I'm very supportive of the OBR, for the reasons I've set out, vital for stability, vital and integral to our fiscal rules, which I've said a number of times are ironclad. Thank you very much, Jess. I've got Lizzie from The Mirror. Prime Minister, Lizzie Buckham from The Daily Mirror. You talked about looking again at welfare reform, but you failed to pass your measures the last time you tried. Can you take your MPs with you this time, and would you take the whip of people if they oppose cuts to welfare? Well, on this issue in welfare, I'm focusing particularly on young people. I do think there's a general consensus that it is a moral mission. I mean, there aren't many people who are comfortable with, nor should they be, the fact there's nearly a million young people who are very stuck with not earning and not learning. And my worry, as I say, is that that is something that isn't a short-term thing. It happens just for a number of years, and then it's sort of back into work, back into learning, and everything's fine. My big worry is that all of the evidence I've seen shows that if at that age that's the situation, the likelihood is it's going to go on for decades, and that's going to impact that cohort. I think it's generally, there's a strong consensus that we must do something about that, and we will do something about it. I've got Jack from The Sun. Jack Elson. Thank you, Prime Minister. And just to pick up on a point which Chris made at the beginning, is it your goal that welfare spending by the next election will be coming down and not up? And then just secondly, your Chancellor in the Budget and over the weekend said that she was asking ordinary workers to contribute a little bit more. But what is your message to people who aren't contributing at all? Thank you. Certainly in terms of the welfare, but we've got two reviews going on, as you know, the Sims Review and the Milburn Review. We need to let them complete their course. It is a moral mission, but I've been outspoken a number of times on the fact that the last government lost control of the welfare spending, and like all things, it falls to us to pick up the mess that they have made. In relation to, we are asking everybody to contribute a little bit more. I do think it's really important to appreciate that the two child limit, that three quarters of children in poverty are in working families. It's the working poor we're dealing with here. That is families who are working but can't make enough money from their wages in order to pay their bills and keep their children out of poverty. I think we should do something about that. I think it's the right thing to do for children. I think it's the right thing to do for the NHS. I was really struck spontaneously last week by the strength of feeling in the hospital, that if we're able to deal with child poverty, it will bring the number of children going into hospital down and have a real impact on the NHS budget. It's not me saying it to you. The first reaction of the staff in hospital was to that effect. I genuinely think it's really important for the economy. If we want our economy to grow, and we do, we have to ensure that every single person can contribute to that. It is really hard, if you're growing up in poverty, to play your full part economically towards the growth that we need in this country. For all those reasons, I think it's the right thing to do. I've now got news with Chris. Chris. Thank you, Prime Minister. Good morning, Prime Minister. Chris Chandler, news with Chris. The government is lifting the two-child benefit cap from next April, but with working families being told they need to contribute more and the two-child benefit cap not being lifted from next April, what reassurance can you give families right now that are struggling this winter as it approaches? For families struggling this winter, I want to give the reassurance that we're taking a number of measures on the cost of living, because I think for them, that's probably the thing up most in their mind. Can I make ends meet? Can I pay the bills? As I said in my speech, that happened to me when I was growing up. We didn't have enough money to pay all of our bills. We had to do what families are doing now, which is to sit around the kitchen table and make the difficult choices to which bills we wouldn't pay because we couldn't afford to do so. It was the old days of landlines, but that's why we had to have the phone cut off, because we couldn't pay the bill. In those days, that meant the end of your phone. But those are the decisions that families are going through this winter, and that's why what I'd say through you to them is we are taking measures in relation to railfares, to prescriptions, energy bills down by £150. For those that are struggling most, that's on top of the £150 that we're already taking off for. Last winter, 3 million families that needed it most had their energy bills reduced by £150. We've extended that to 6 million of the poorest families, those struggling most this winter. For them, there's that additional benefit as well. For any of those through you who've got children who can benefit from free breakfast clubs, from free school meals, the free childcare, which downstairs there's a nursery where you see firsthand the evidence of this, from nine months to four years does save a significant amount of money, does mean that parents and carers can get back into work if that's what they want to do and earn a little bit more. It's hugely important for children because I fundamentally believe that children aged four ought to be at the same point on the starting line. As I said in my speech, I'm sick of hearing that children aged four, some of them ready to learn, some of them in nappies, it's not a slogan in a speech. It's really something we should all be concerned about. We're beginning to end that. Thank you very much, Tris. I've got News ASB Andrew. Andrew. Good morning, Prime Minister. What guarantees can you give that your government will be transparent about fiscal realities even if the news is politically inconvenient? Firstly, Andrew, thank you very much. I think by standing up here and walking through the decisions that we've made, hopefully that helps explain the process and very much setting out the result of that, the substance, the content of the budget and being clear, I think, as to what the driving principles were behind it, that we wanted to protect our public services, our NHS in particular. Most people would say that's a good thing because they need to know the NHS is there for them and their families when they need it. One of the saddest things under the last government is when Labour left power, we had the lowest waiting lists and the highest confidence in the NHS. That was really appreciated in the NHS and by the staff. At the last election, we had the highest waiting lists and the lowest confidence. You can imagine the impact that had on the staff of the NHS who were trying to do their level best and yet the public confidence is at its lowest because of the position they've been left in. We were determined to turn that around. We were determined to bring down the cost of borrowing because that then impacts on interest rates, which then for anybody with a mortgage or a bill or anything where interest rates make a difference is hugely important. I wanted transparently to be clear that the cost of living is the single most important thing for most families and communities across the country. They will want to know, and through me, can know, that we've taken a number of measures on the cost of living, which will help. It doesn't eradicate the problem but helps, but also gives the sense that we're a government that does actually understand what a cost of living crisis feels like and is determined to make the fair and decisive decisions to deal with it. Thank you all very much indeed. Thank you.