Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

The right hon. Gentleman was talking earlier about the process under the previous Government, and...

I remind the hon. Gentleman that when one goes into government one is responsible for what happen...

I listened carefully to what my right hon. Friend said about incentives to work. Will he say a li...

I am going to come on to that, but one of the great success stories is the fact that the number o...

rose—

I shall make a little more progress before giving way to the hon. Member for Edmonton (Mr Love).<...

The OBR has forecast that under the Budget the savings ratio will fall to 3%. Is the Secretary of...

As I recall, the savings ratio under the previous Government fell to all-time lows, and under thi...

rose—

I have given already way to the hon. Gentleman, and I just want to make another point about somet...

For the avoidance of doubt, I should just say that I was happy to see the Secretary of State look...

The Secretary of State will be aware that, for very many people, the average level of savings is ...

When the hon. Lady got up to make an intervention, I wondered whether she would take the opportun...

In recounting all the figures going down, the Minister omitted to mention that living standards h...

Again, I say to the hon. Gentleman that he really needs to address his question to those who were...

In the Secretary of State’s list of successes, rightly attributed to the businesses in this count...

I pay tribute to my neighbour and hon. Friend for his phenomenal work on the jobs fairs, on all t...

Does the Secretary of State not have any concern that even now there are 2.3 million people unemp...

Of course I want to see more people back in work, particularly young people, but the hon. Lady mu...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the lesson of Labour’s crash is that more spending, more bor...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The reality is that the Opposition are not very good at learn...

I wonder whether my right hon. Friend can help me. Does he know whether it is now the policy of H...

With respect, I have found in the past few weeks that I cannot really answer for bishops. They us...

rose—

Order. I should say to the House that in the light of the very large number of Members who wish t...

Wednesday’s Budget was certainly dressed to impress, but at its very heart there was an admission...

Before the hon. Lady gets into full flow, will she at least recognise that on elderly poverty, fu...

The Government’s own figures show that the number of pensioners in poverty is set to rise, not fa...

For the record, it is inaccurate to describe everybody on the Government Benches as having a weal...

I am sorry if the hon. Gentleman cannot afford a Lamborghini with his savings. I will come on to ...

On cutting taxes for ordinary working people, surely the hon. Lady must concede that putting the ...

The hon. Gentleman will know that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has counted the costs of what ...

My hon. Friend talks about a Budget for the doers. Yesterday I met three young people in my const...

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. As he knows, Labour’s compulsory jobs guarantee wou...

If things are going as swimmingly as the Government wish us to believe, is my hon. Friend as conc...

My hon. Friend speaks knowledgably not only of what she sees in her constituency of Walthamstow, ...

The hon. Lady has mentioned her jobs guarantee, which Labour has said will involve the private se...

The compulsory jobs guarantee, which will last for the full five years of the next Parliament, wi...

Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the biggest indictments of this Government and the Budget i...

My hon. Friend makes an important point: women are disproportionately hit by the changes introduc...

On the subject of debt and future spending—the hon. Lady will probably get to this later in her s...

We are the party who have said that we will cut the winter fuel allowance for the richest pension...

I think I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. Given that I have been listening for 12 mi...

The right hon. Gentleman will not have to wait too long: at 7 pm, he will find out how we will vo...

indicated assent.

He continues to do so now. If three years later and £130 million down the drain is on time and on...

The hon. Lady may regret bringing the bishops and the moral case they were arguing into this. Per...

The employment rate reached a record high under the previous Labour Government and it has not ris...

rose—

Order. I remind the House of the seven-minute limit on Back-Bench speeches.

1.54 pm

I will start by drawing attention to the question that I asked the shadow Secretary of State. I n...

When the hon. Gentleman was Immigration Minister, he said at the Dispatch Box time and again that...

I have been very clear that net migration from outside the EU is falling, but that it is going up...

Is it not a bit galling to take lessons from the Labour party on equity and fairness when, under ...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right.

Also on the cost of living, I am very proud that Conser...

If the hon. Gentleman waits, he will hear that I will be asking the Government Front-Bench team r...

All I said is that the hon. Lady is not as enthusiastic about our changes as the hon. Member for ...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will not give way; I will make progress. Our pension reforms are very valuable and will be well...

The hon. Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper)will forgive me, I hope, if I do not follow him dir...

My right hon. Friend speaks with great authority on these matters. Does he agree that unlocking p...

Absolutely, and the argument that has been with us throughout this Parliament has been about how ...

Before my right hon. Friend finishes his interesting speech, will he respond to the concerns amon...

Having been around at the time, I rather got the impression that it was having an impact on every...

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling).

Fou...

It is fascinating that the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) resorted to quoting the old...

I heartily agree, and I would not be surprised if things got even better than that over the next ...

Does my hon. Friend agree that unchaining annuities is likely to encourage more people to save in...

I know that my hon. Friend is an expert in these matters, and I strongly agree that the change wi...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stourbridge (Margot James). I want to concentrate ...

I pay tribute to the right hon. Lady, whose work in this area has been really first rate. I told ...

I am absolutely delighted that social investment tax relief has been set at 30%. Some estimates s...

It is a privilege to follow the right hon. Member for Salford and Eccles (Hazel Blears), of whom ...

My hon. Friend, the MP for Britain’s second foremost brewing town, has done a fantastic job on th...

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, and I will not let petty rivalries interfere in thi...

I totally agree with my hon. Friend, but no list of beers named after hon. Members would be compl...

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and I enjoyed sampling a pint of Ginger Rodent in the Str...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Burton (Andrew Griffiths) and to listen to his spe...

Does my hon. Friend share my concern and horror at the escalation in the number of sanctions made...

My hon. Friend makes a very important point. In my office, we deal with 12 such cases every week,...

I want to speak briefly about the elderly. The response to the Budget has focused on the needs of...

I enjoyed the speech of the hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (Rory Stewart). He focused on ...

I understand the point that the hon. Gentleman is making—I too represent a northern, or midlands,...

I intend to talk about unemployment, and about youth unemployment in particular. I know that the ...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I want to develop my argument before I give way again.

Telford has a particularly good and ...

Does my hon. Friend not think that it would have been better for the Government to explore some o...

I agree. I think that the Government could have made an announcement much earlier. They could hav...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

No, I will not.

For many people in Telford £15,000 will be an annual income on a part-time ...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Telford (David Wright), but judging from what he s...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Reigate (Crispin Blunt), who stressed the importan...

The important change is that independent advice is now definitively independent advice—the era of...

I agree, but my concern is that the people giving the advice need to be competent; it is not nece...

I am pleased to follow the right hon. Member for Knowsley (Mr Howarth). I tried to follow his arg...

The tragedy of the hon. Member for Enfield North (Nick de Bois) is that he actually believes what...

Women form the majority of employees in the public sector, so the cuts to that sector are doubly ...

I agree with my hon. Friend. The majority of jobs created that are part time and have limiting ca...

Order.

3.34 pm

Coventry and Banbury are not that far away from each other. When the hon. Member for Coventry Sou...

Indeed, progress is being made in Coventry South, where the number of jobseeker’s allowance claim...

But, of course, Opposition Members simply are not willing to acknowledge that there has been a pe...

The changes to pensions and annuities have caused a great deal of interest in my constituency, bu...

The hon. Gentleman has rightly challenged the Government about the uncertainties caused by the ch...

I may as well ask the hon. Lady what a future Labour Government would do, given that Labour has f...

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is to be congratulated on an intellectually bold and intellectual...

Last week the Chancellor said that his ambition was to support the makers, the doers and the save...

I apologise for being absent from the Chamber for a while, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I had to att...

This is the third day of the Budget debate that I have sat through, and I surely cannot be the on...

Order. Time is up. I call Guto Bebb.

4.19 pm

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Wigan (Lisa Nandy), who spoke passionately and elo...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

The hon. Lady makes comments from a sedentary position, but—

No, I want the hon. Gentleman to give way.

I will happily give way after I have made this point.

My comments about the Welsh Governmen...

The hon. Gentleman has returned from Patagonia as partisan as ever. Why does he not commend the f...

The hon. Lady makes an interesting point about Jobs Growth Wales. When I wrote to local businesse...

No other issue is more likely to define this parliamentary term and this coalition Government tha...

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Livingston (Graeme Morrice) although I disag...

I am very interested in the hon. Gentleman’s comments on the Conservative-led Government, but thi...

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. It is indeed a Liberal Democrat policy, but it is als...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish), although I wis...

Budgets aren’t what they used to be. It used to be that there were no surprises in Budgets becaus...

rose—

Perhaps my colleague in the coalition will enlighten us on what she understands the Labour party ...

As my hon. Friend was speaking, I wondered whether the Opposition have nothing to say because the...

That is a fair comment, but we would hope for critical thought—a thoughtful Opposition going thro...

I just want to make sure that the hon. Gentleman is clear about this. The reference is to housing...

I am grateful for that clarification. I hope the hon. Lady also understands that when people turn...

I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to speak in the Budget debate. This Budget was ...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (Jonathan Reynolds). He will ...

It was a great Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, who once said that it would be “qui...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey). I thank him f...

I take it that the hon. Gentleman is referring to the agency workers directive.

That was one of them, yes.

Then I plead guilty. I was one of those involved in those discussions, and absolutely rightly so....

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point. He and I have a difference of opinion on the matter, w...

Listening to the Chancellor, I could not help but conclude that my constituents simply do not inh...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to speak in this debate. I am delighted to be abl...

There was a lot in the Budget that I would like to talk about this afternoon, including on the is...

It is a huge privilege and pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South (Dame ...

I apologise for being absent for part of this debate to attend a delegated legislation Committee,...

Listening to the Chancellor and then turning to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s analysis o...

Order. The right hon. Gentleman’s time is up.

6.4 pm

The Budget was trailed as being

“for the makers, the doers and the savers.”

I say “tr...

We have heard from this Government for some time that we are all in this together, but with Budge...

rose—

I will not give way, as I am just about to finish. We will also introduce a Budget that recognise...

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde (Mr McKenzie).

Much of ...

As the last Back Bencher to be called to speak in the debate, I am reminded of that biblical vers...

Although we welcome the reduction in APD that is recommended, it is important to remember that my...

I thank my hon. Friend and colleague for that intervention. He outlines the fact that although we...

It has been advocated for some time that we should consider a minimum price for alcohol, which in...

My hon. Friend must have read my notes. I slipped out for a while so I suspect that he had a look...

Will the hon. Gentleman consider the alternative perspective from a personal liberty viewpoint?