I will give way to the hon. Gentleman, but first I want to deal with some of the claims that the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill made in the course of the debates on the Bill. The first claim that he made was that spending on out-of-work benefits was falling before 2010. That is not true. The figures published show that between 1997-98 and 2010-11 spending on out-of-work benefits rose by £2.6 billion. There we have it. Even the Opposition’s attempt to whitewash what was a very small idea is not true. Overall benefits and tax credit spending increased by £75 billion, from £122 billion to £197 billion, which is 60% in real terms.
The Opposition’s decision to vote against the Bill has financial implications equivalent to 48,000 nurses’ salaries or more than 500,000 primary school places. That is the kind of mess that they have got themselves into because they have taken the easy course in opposition, which is to oppose everything and to come up with no serious proposals.