Rachel Reeves has created 'even more burden for the future', Fuller tells GB News

GB News

Labour's announcement that 50 transport schemes have been given the go-ahead is to distract attention from "the woes of the Chancellor", Shadow Treasury Chief Secretary Richard Fuller has said.Speaking to GB News, Fuller claimed that Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander's announcement was planned to "draw attention" away from Rachel Reeves.FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00Well, we're now joined by Shadow Chief Secretary Richard Fuller. Richard, Conservative MP,

00:06thank you for joining us this morning. Now, we've had the Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander

00:13on in the last hour talking about the announcements, the infrastructure plans that the new government

00:18is going to bring into place. Do you support this new investment?

00:23Well, I support a number of the announcements, largely because these were projects that were

00:29already underway under the last Conservative government. I think the majority of them

00:33were already well underway. And so, Ms. Heidi Alexander's statements today really are part

00:39of a process of trying to draw attention away from some of the woes of the Chancellor, I

00:43think, as we get ready for recess. Now, of course, it could be argued that the Chancellor

00:49has made the economic situation worse, paying public sector workers more, a number of tax

00:56rises that haven't resulted in the increase in revenue that they hoped. But nevertheless,

01:02they did receive a difficult inheritance from the last Conservative government,

01:06particularly in terms of public debt and a squeeze on interest payments. Do you think

01:11the Conservative government did enough to bring debt down? Well, in some ways, Miriam,

01:18I think the Conservative party in last Parliament got criticised for trying to do too much. The

01:22tax rises were very difficult for Conservatives like me to stomach. But that was part of the plan

01:27to bring down the debt. And the debt, of course, wasn't something of choice. It was largely due

01:32to the response to support businesses and people during Covid. The response of this Chancellor,

01:37Rachel Reeves, has been to increase the amount of debt, creating even more burden for the future.

01:42And of course, last summer, we went into a period of uncertainty. The Chancellor was talking down

01:47the British economy and then suddenly slammed pensioners by taking away the winter fuel allowance.

01:53And now we're going into this summer with a huge amount of uncertainty for businesses and

01:57different individuals, because everyone knows the chance is going to come back in October

02:01and raise people's taxes. We just don't know who's going to be hit hardest.

02:06But Richard, what would you do about the fact that, for example, the state pension is going to go bust

02:12in ten years' time? In ten years' time, national insurance receipts will be less than what we're

02:17paying out in welfare. If you don't support cutting winter fuel allowance, if you don't support

02:22ending the triple lock, what would be the Conservatives' plan to stop our country essentially

02:27from going bankrupt? Well, I think you're putting your finger on a very important point, Miriam,

02:34which is we can look at day-to-day expenditure and look at cuts there. But we also need to look at some

02:38of those long-term liabilities, the burdens we're passing on to future taxpayers about how affordable

02:45are things like the state pension in 20 or 30 years' time. And, you know, the Conservative Party is under

02:50new leadership. We have this opportunity to think about new ways to approach problems that perhaps

02:55have bedevilled the country in the past. And I think looking at some of those issues and trying to come up

03:00with a solution that works for people who are just starting work. Because if you ask young people, Miriam,

03:05do they think they're going to get a state pension? They either say, well, I probably will, but not

03:09until I'm very, very old. Or they say, I'm not going to get it at all. We need to address that.

03:13And I'm doing that thinking and discussing it with the Leader of the Opposition.

03:16I'm wondering, am I going to get it, Richard? I thought, well, I'm 65, right? So I thought I'll get

03:22the pension. But I think I've got to wait until I'm 67 now. That's why I've got to come into work

03:27here every morning. Yeah. I thought you did it for the long.

03:30Do all of this. Yeah. Yeah. Coach, let's move on. Have you...

03:33Eamon, I'm in the... OK. No, no, no. Keep going, Richard.

03:37I was going to say... What were you going to say, Richard?

03:40Look, I mean, Eamon, you and I are in the same boat. You know, they moved it from 66 to 67.

03:46And who knows, they might move it to 70 before you and I get to 67. But for Miriam and people

03:51younger than Miriam, they have a fundamental question about will the state pension be there

03:56for them at all in its current form? Yeah.

03:58That's a problem I think the Conservative Party should be looking at.

04:01I have a fundamental question for you. What about Donald Trump being nominated for this

04:06Nobel Peace Prize by Benjamin Netanyahu? Do you think that's a worthy nomination or do you

04:12have a view on that? Well, I don't have a very developed view. I would just say I would think

04:19even the President of the United States would think that it's a bit premature. It's the

04:22Nobel Peace Prize. But the people of Israel are not yet at peace with their neighbours.

04:28The people in Gaza are still suffering from attacks. There's no peace there. And there's

04:34no peace in the wider Middle East. So I think the President would say, whoa, whoa, hold on,

04:39Prime Minister. Let's just get these issues resolved before we start talking about handing

04:44out the accolades. Great.

04:46Do you think, as the U.K., we need to rethink our foreign policy on the Middle East? The

04:52last government was very pro-Israel compared to perhaps previous cabinets. This one, not

04:58so much. Do you think the two-state solution is still a viable option? Well, I'm not an expert

05:07in this area, Miriam, to be honest. So I don't want to go too far. My personal view is that I do think we

05:11need to stick by the two-state solution. I think it's been a tremendous mistake by Western

05:16government since the Oslo Accords not to follow up those, and those are back in the 1990s,

05:21not to follow up on that with consistent pressure on both sides to ensure they were pursuing the

05:26pathway to peace, that they were respecting borders, and that they were trying to create a

05:31viable economic future so that future generations of Palestinians, future generations of

05:36Israelis felt they had a stake in the future as neighbours that could get on with each

05:40other. So I think the West really does need to say if he wants to believe in the two-state

05:44solution, it's got to back that up with more action to make sure it actually takes hold.

05:48Shannon, Chief Secretary, we've got to leave it there. Thank you. I'm just a beggar's belief

05:54that you are 65. You're like me, that the problem is, you know, he should be a pensioner.

06:0063, Amy. 63. 63. You just look older.

06:05You're supposed to insult the guests. Thank you. Thank you, Richard. Thank you very much indeed.

06:10We'll leave it there.

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