Pre-Budget Report

I will give way in a second, but it is not as though Labour Members wanted the debate in the first place. Let me explain what happened to the Budget, and then I will take the hon. Gentleman's intervention. The next morning, the OECD undermined the borrowing projections, when it issued growth forecasts for the UK that were different from the Chancellor's and said that Britain would have the worst recession and highest percentage rise in unemployment in the G7. Yesterday lunchtime, the Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed out that the new top rate would raise, in its words, ““virtually nothing””. The Governor of the Bank of England told the Treasury Select Committee yesterday that the Government should be focusing on fixing the banking system. Meanwhile, retailers are up in arms about the huge costs and logistical nightmare imposed by the temporary VAT cut. Last night, the Chancellor U-turned on the proposed hike in whisky duty, which he had announced only 24 hours earlier. Finally, it has been revealed in an official Treasury document signed off by a Treasury Minister that there is a secret tax bombshell to increase VAT to 18.5 per cent.