WATCH: Rachel Reeves slammed over ‘repackaged’ Spending Review

GB News

Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden has accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of "pulling the wool over the eyes" of the public with her Spending Review announcements.His comments came as Reeves unveiled her comprehensive Spending Review in the Commons on Wednesday.Holden fumed to Patrick Christys on GB News: "I think you'll see a lot of these numbers are just announcements."They've repackaged them, and they've really put them out there. I think the truth is, what we're seeing from the Chancellor today is, they're trying to pull the wool over everybody's eyes."READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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00:00I suppose the obvious question for me to ask you is why didn't the Tories splash the cash like this?

00:04Well, I think you'll see a lot of these numbers are just re-announcements.

00:07They've repackaged them and they've really put them out there.

00:09I think the truth is, though, what we're seeing from the Chancellor today is they're trying to pull the wool over everybody's eyes.

00:15It's all smoke and mirrors.

00:16For example, that defence spending package, a crucial one.

00:20All they have done is literally roll in the intelligence budget, which is going to rise around £5 billion by the end of this parliament,

00:27into the defence budget and then said, actually, defence spending is going up.

00:31So actually, there's no new money there.

00:33The killer, though, for Rachel at the moment is around this debt cost.

00:38And what we've seen around the world is debt costs rise over the last few years.

00:42That's fair enough.

00:43But the UK is now paying a massive premium compared to the US, compared to Italy.

00:47Let's bring the debt clock up because we've got it, if we can.

00:50Bring the debt clock up.

00:50So why is this so important?

00:52Because for a lot of people, it just feels, there it is.

00:54Let's have a look at this.

00:55I mean, that is Britain's debt rising.

00:56So there you go.

00:58But why is this so important?

00:59The key, the really important thing about this is actually the interest we pay.

01:03And we are paying over £100 billion of interest a year.

01:07Now, that will be, these are massive figures.

01:09But to put that in context for the, you know, for everybody,

01:13basically all council tax receipts in the country, roughly every year, around £50 billion.

01:18So imagine if everybody in the country was paying double their council tax,

01:22that is the amount just on the debt interest alone that we are paying to service that debt.

01:26And the key thing is today, hundreds of billions of pounds of notional spending announced,

01:31but no idea of how to pay for it.

01:33And that's the real kicker for the British people.

01:34But this is the one I don't quite get, because when List Trust and Quasi Quarteng did something

01:37a bit like that, that was financial armageddon, and it essentially brought them down.

01:42But why is Rachel Reeves allowed to do this?

01:44Well, actually, we're seeing the debt costs on our 10-year bonds.

01:47We borrow it on these long-term things called government guilts.

01:5010-year bonds now, the highest rate we're paying since not when Quasi was there,

01:56but actually since 2008, when Gordon Brown was last there, in the heart of that financial crisis.

02:01On our 30-year bonds, Patrick, almost paying the highest level for almost 30 years,

02:05which is almost as long as you've been alive, I think.

02:07So, you know, we are literally paying through the nose at these record high levels,

02:11and we're paying higher than our other partners, because nobody has confidence that Rachel Reeves

02:16is actually going to manage the books.

02:17Well, what I will say is this.

02:19Some of the key areas of today where she's just got the country's checkbook out

02:22and started splashing it all over the place.

02:23Defence, immigration and asylum, nuclear power, steel, social housing, transport,

02:30police and prisons, schools, the NHS, and I'm going to take the NHS out of that,

02:36and I'm going to say, to be fair on it, you let all those things go to pot, didn't you?

02:39Well, look, look at actually what we did in the last year of our time in government.

02:43Actually, spending per head in schools was the highest ever level.

02:46NHS, you know, highest ever level.

02:49I'm not saying that there weren't difficult decisions when we came in in 2010.

02:51We had to balance the books.

02:53The danger now is, we're looking at this,

02:54the books are absolutely being torn apart by Rachel Reeves today.

02:58This is a massive splurge of borrowing,

03:00and the real danger, I think, is around that debt interest issue,

03:04because we cannot get away from that.

03:05That is over £100 billion.

03:07It's so much money that we really have to get on top of that straight away,

03:11and I really worry about anybody now pledging to spend loads more money.

03:15We have to get that under control.

03:16But they're going to cut us on them, hotels?

03:18They're going to say, by the way, sorry, one more quick one with you.

03:21By the way, I'm just getting something in my ear that's quite important.

03:23I believe that our Northern Ireland report to Doogie Beattie is out and about for us.

03:26We're going to go to him in a second.

03:28I think we are expecting another night of these anti-immigration protests.

03:32From the information that I've had,

03:33it's about to kick off big time where Doogie is.

03:36I'm going to take you to in a second.

03:37So, Richard, sorry about this.

03:38No, of course.

03:38Look, they've said that they're going to shut these asylum hotels,

03:41every single one of them, by 2029.

03:44That's going to save us £4.7 million a year.

03:46They promised to do that within a year of getting in,

03:48and we know that's not happened.

03:49The truth is you have to have an effective deterrent.

03:52Yes, we needed to get Rwanda sorted.

03:55They cancelled it.

03:55It was a few hundred million pounds to get Rwanda over the line.

03:58It would have been a major deterrent.

03:59And instead, we're paying billions a year to house people in the UK.

04:04It's a ridiculous situation.

04:05Does she have to go?

04:07I think the truth is the entire lot need to go.

04:10It's not just about her.

04:11It's about Keir.

04:11It's about Ange.

04:12It's about the entire Motley Crue.

04:14They all need to go, Patrick.

04:15Well, that's spoken like a true Tory.

04:17I mean, to be fair, that is the opposition for you, isn't it?

04:20But that's that.

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