Pre-Budget Report

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend, who is a fellow Coventry Member. I think that he was in industry at that time, coping directly with those who were being hit by all that. I was in the House, and every day I attended and found that another factory had gone under. It was the most terrifying situation. That was happening because, at precisely the point at which we entered that recession, Government expenditure was cut, thereby doubling the recession's effect. I entirely agree with Opposition Members who have made that point. We did not have 3 million unemployed; after the fiddling of the figures on incapacity benefit, we were looking at more than 4 million unemployed. That was the reality of the recession that the Government of that time quite unnecessarily put us into. Given the scale of the problem today, we need a cohesive and coherent national effort to confront it. When we get through the party battles that will no doubt be fought in the House over the coming months about the Government's package, we must not lose sight of the fact that we have a mountain to climb. That will require an effort from everyone. It is in that context that I look at the increase in the top rate of income tax. I believe that the country will respond to the difficulties, because we always have. We faced the war. People say that this is not a wartime situation, but the scale of the problem involved in eliminating this debt is similar in many respects. People will respond if they believe that the burdens being shared are being fairly distributed. It is in that context that we are asking the best-off to make a bigger contribution. I can see no objection to that, when we know that we face several, perhaps many, years of severe restraint—certainly for the medium term—on living standards and public expenditure, as well as the prospect of unemployment for many, and even repossession.