I was delighted the visit to Salisbury by the Taxpayers Alliance stimulated responses from two of your readers.

Tim Rowe reasonably sets out the accounting methods of how Quantitative Easing and Covid Debt is represented in our national debt figures and Joy Wagstaff challenges me directly on what I did when I was in the Treasury.

I am happy to respond to both.

Firstly, when we left office in July, we left a deficit (i.e. the gap between what we spend and what we bring in from tax) of 4.4 per cent. When we came into office, it was 10 per cent.

The key fact the TPA are highlighting is that we need to consider the trajectory of public spending. All money that is not raised from tax or growth has to come from increased borrowing, and borrowing generates debt interest which taxpayers have to pay.

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As an opposition MP, my constitutional role is to ask questions as well as offer solutions. 

To Joy's point – yes, as the longest serving economic secretary my role, primarily, was to chart a course for the Financial Services industry post Brexit.

This meant establishing a new regulatory framework for an industry that constitutes roughly 12 per cent of the economy and making the regulators more accountable to Parliament whilst also helping banks develop hubs to ensure a continued presence on the high street.

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As Chief Secretary under Jeremy Hunt I did restrain public spending insofar as, when settling pay with unions in July 2023, I did not raise borrowing but asked departments to make savings to reach settlements.

Cuts to winter fuel payments are 'cruel and unfair'Cuts to winter fuel payments are 'cruel and unfair' (Image: James Manning)

I also rejected calls to cut winter fuel payments for relatively poor pensioners as I thought it was cruel and unfair.

I welcome the call to work together but it would be easier if the Labour Government had been honest about the cost (£9billion) of giving above inflation pay rises for workforces without placing any conditions around productivity.

They should also have been honest about their plans to take financial support from vulnerable old people - 4,000 of whom are now assessed to have their lives at risk as a consequence. 

Rt. Hon. John Glen MP

Member of Parliament for Salisbury and South Wiltshire