British Chancellor John Healey Talks 'Jewel' In UK's Economic Crown

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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Lisa Abramowicz (0:07)

Chancellor of the Exchequer, thank you so much for being with us here today. The IMF has actually had some incredibly positive views on the UK economy.

It's predicated on fiscal tightening and ongoing spending cuts. How do you cut spending at a time of inflation?

John Healey (0:23)

Well, it is welcome news. The IMF report this week here in Bangkok backed our economic plans back in Britain. Yes, it was about backing the...

not just the plans, but the performance already of Britain cutting the deficit and demonstrating a fiscal discipline that the IMF says it wants to see in other countries. But it's also about upgrading UK growth. And whilst we all want growth to be even stronger in the face of these deep economic shocks that people are seeing around the world, nevertheless the British economic growth is proving resilience and my job as Chancellor, my responsibility as Chancellor, is to protect that resilience in the British economy and that's what my budget in two weeks' time will do.

Lisa Abramowicz (1:06)

So there are two ways to cut a budget deficit. One of them is to increase revenue and one of them is to cut spending. Which lever do you want to rely on?

John Healey (1:14)

Well, I'll publish the numbers and the plans in detail in less than two weeks' time. But the Prime Minister and I have been both very clear from the outset, you know, we have to control spending.

It has to be part of a plan to bring down the deficit, bring down the high borrowing costs that previous governments left Britain with. And that's the way in the end that we underwrite the promises that any government underwrites the promises it makes to its people.

Lisa Abramowicz (1:41)

There have been discussions about taxing the banks, and I'm just wondering what the conversations have been like with the leaders of people like JP Morgan and Barclays who have come out and said this is not going to be good for us. How do you respond?

What's been the tenor of those conversations?

John Healey (1:58)

Well, first, they're private conversations, but they are conversations that range very widely from the particular interest banks have in their own tax regime to the massive role that they play internationally and in Britain in driving investment in British companies and making lending available for British families.

So, these are a really important part of the British economy. They're a part of the jewel, if you like, in the British economic crown, a big contributor to the economy and, you know, an important part of our business.

Lisa Abramowicz (2:36)

Could you offset higher taxes with maybe capital reductions?

John Healey (2:40)

Well, you're tempting me here into speculation about budget measures and...

Lisa Abramowicz (2:43)

All right, you're not going to go there.

John Healey (2:45)

On a serious point, on a serious point, it's speculation in the past has done real damage, where people have cashed in mortgages when they didn't... pensions when they didn't need to, people have held back investment when they didn't need to.

And so, the last thing I'm going to do as chancellor is contribute to speculation ahead of the budget in just two weeks' time.

Lisa Abramowicz (3:03)

Just lastly, there's been a lot of discussion about the wealth tax and people who are wealthy individuals who've been leaving the Great Britain as a result of just trying to get a cheaper tax rate. Do you want to continue with that, raise it further, or do you think that right now it should be a sustainable level and that that is the appropriate level?

John Healey (3:22)

So, look, you're trying to turn me back into the same territory.

We're two weeks from the budget. On the 28th of October, I will set out the fiscal plans, the economic plans. It'll be a budget that meets the fiscal rules and stays on the path, which the IMF this week in Bangkok has urged Britain to do and other countries to follow for fiscal discipline and consolidation. It'll give, where I can, a bit of breathing space to families, to businesses from the cost of living and the cost of business. And it will protect that resilience in the UK economy that the IMF has confirmed this week, because that, in the end, is the future for us all.