Pre-Budget Report

Let me deal with the hon. Gentleman's second point first. I have set out clearly in my presentation to the House this afternoon how we see £82 billion of deficit reduction taking place. Some £25 billion will come from growth measures and £57 billion from discretionary measures—tax will account for £19 billion of that and the rest will have to come from cuts and efficiencies in public spending. As he will recall from 1998, when comprehensive spending reviews were introduced, the whole point of them is about certainty; they are designed to give public service leaders and managers certainty about budgets for a period of three years. If a £4 billion or £5 billion margin of error remained because one cannot be clear about how fast unemployment will fall, that would be bigger than the budgets of four or five different Departments. If one cannot provide certainty about how much money is available, that defeats the object. We are happy to provide certainty, where that is possible. We know that the Conservative party is more than happy to provide four or five different positions on departmental budgets over the course of a day, but that is not an example that we wish to emulate.