Treasury and Work and Pensions

It is partly a result of rising incomes across society as a whole, over which the Government have presided. If we look at the incomes of the poorest families—the hon. Gentleman is referring to them—their incomes have risen as well as a result of the tax credits, minimum wage, new deal and all the other measures that he and his colleagues have fought and voted against every single step of the way. The Conservatives talk about public services but they still want to cut them. They claim that they are committed to tackling poverty but their top priority, as we have seen, is a tax break for City traders. On all these issues, there is not a single centre-ground policy, which shows that for the Conservatives, change is entirely cosmetic. Strip away the rhetoric about change and every speech makes it clear. They do not give the details, and they will not say exactly which bits of the so-called ““big state”” they want to cut back. But if we look beyond the positioning, the Tories are still committed to the same old spending cuts. We should stop welcoming these supposed changes with nods of approval; we should start showing that there is absolutely no change at all. That will be the Tories’ problem. Election success in his country is determined by who the public trust and who they think has the best answers to the future challenges. When we contrast the Tories’ proposals, as we have tonight, with the new ideas from the Chancellor and his colleagues as set out in the Queen’s Speech, it is clear that it is the Government who are coming up with the coherent ideas on the other new policy challenges of welfare to work, the economy and skills, climate change and public service reform.