There's obviously a lot of factors global factors creating uncertainty for the economy but we have also created some of our
own in the UK and the debate about the Northern Ireland press call is obviously casting casting a shadow. Have you analyzed at
the Treasury what the economic implications of tearing up the protocol would be.
First of all on the protocol I think the government's position is that as it's currently operating it poses enormous challenges
to the stability of the situation in Northern Ireland. You can see it's become a barrier to re-establishing power sharing in
Northern Ireland doesn't have cross community consent and that's a very serious situation that needs resolving. Our preference is
to have and always has been to have a negotiated settlement with our European friends and partners. And no decision has been
taken about what the future direction might be. With regard to your second question. Look of course. That's my job to provide the
prime minister and the government with analysis on policy regarding the economy. You'd expect me to do that on everything.
And of course we do. And we're constantly monitoring everything that's going on and analyzing that as we go. But we understand
that you could get legislation next week to make it possible to tear up the protocol. And that seems to be what the foreign
secretary is supporting. Are you are you lobbying hard on behalf of the economy to prevent that. I think it's important people know
that no decision has been taken. Our preference has always been to have a negotiated settlement. I know the foreign secretary
continues to engage with her counterparts in in Europe about how we can find resolution to some of the very real challenges that
the protocol is is causing not least being a barrier to resuming power sharing in Northern Ireland which is something we all want
to see. And you said that it's the Treasury's job to analyse these things when the protocol was signed it was very clear that these
checks were going to happen that there would be this kind of impediment to trade. So that's something that's that's no
surprise at all. I think when it comes to the protocol we have to recognize that
it is a unique situation in Northern Ireland and everyone acknowledged that at the time and it required a degree of
flexibility and a constructive attitude on all sides to recognize the particular circumstances in Northern Ireland to
come up with a solution that would work. Now you know the protocol. This one doesn't work. Well exactly. And I think what we need to
see is a degree of flexibility and a constructive attitude to kind of resolve some practical problems on the ground. You know not a
lot. And I'm hopeful that continued dialogue negotiation can resolve and can resolve the situation result in a negotiated
outcome. Just when we'll get on in a minute. But when you're weighing up the impact on the economy as a chancellor. I mean it seems clear
that you would be pushing for the continuation of the protocol rather than throwing all of our trade relationship into
uncertainty. Well it is important to me as it is important to the government that we also protect the Good Friday agreement
that we resumed power sharing in Northern Ireland that we make sure that Northern Ireland's place in the union in the United Kingdom is
secure. And it's clear that the protocol as it's currently operating is is causing harm on all those things. And that's why
we we we remain committed to trying to find a resolution on that.
It's a serious situation. And that's something that across government we all feel. Our economists estimate that the cost of
living squeeze altogether is going to cost the average family well over twenty one hundred pounds this year. You've got as a
result real disposable income falling by 4 percent. We're also expecting to see the economy shrink in the second and
fourth quarter. We've already saw today it shrank started to shrink in March. I mean do you look back now and wish that you
had got more ahead of this crisis in the spring statement rather than yet again having to rush out some emergency medicine under
pressure from from the rest of the government. No I think it's important that the policy remains responsive to the situation
that we're seeing. And in the spring and in February we had a sense of what was happening in particular. We had clarity on
energy prices because the price cap was increased in April by about 700 pounds. And we announced in advance of that the
support that was going to accompany that increase. And it's worth about 350 pounds for a typical households about half the
increase. And then on top of that. But overall I just said it's two thousand. So that doesn't feel responsive. 350. Well that's just one
aspect of what we're doing. And if you if you look what's happening in a few weeks time for example there's a very
significant tax cut coming in for 30 million people in work. That's what 6 billion pounds. After a significant tax rise. Well it means that
most people in work the vast majority 70 percent of them will see a net tax cut. In fact worth 330 pounds. The combination of
our fuel duty freeze and fuel duty tax cut the largest ever cut to fuel duty that's worth another hundred pounds for a typical
family. In the autumn in advance we improve the generosity of our universal credit system to help people as they move into
work from welfare. That particularly supports low income families. Again that's worth a thousand pounds for a typical
person benefiting. The national living wage has just gone up a few weeks ago again. That's worth about a thousand pounds a year
to someone working full time on the national living wage. So you put all these things together. There's quite a lot of support in
place. But I've always said I stand ready to do more as the situation evolves particularly with energy prices where the
price cap will most likely go up again in the autumn. And I'm focused now on I'm out and about across the country
listening to people hearing what's on their mind what they're worried about to make sure that we can get our policy right. And
that's the thing that I'm focused on now doing.