Prime Minister's question asked in the House of Commons, by Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Conservative). It was answered on Wednesday, 26 November 2008 on behalf of the Prime Minister.

Engagements

Question: So there we have it from the Prime Minister: this plan for even higher VAT was considered. The Prime Minister asks what we would do. I will tell him. We would freeze the council tax by cutting wasteful spending. We would cut small businesses' VAT bills by £10 billion by allowing them to delay payments. We would ensure that the loans got out of the banks by giving Government insurance to those loans, to get small business working again. Instead of sitting in Downing street making up nonsense about the Opposition plans, why does he not do something useful? Everybody knows that Labour is putting up taxes because there is a black hole at the heart of the public finances. Let me turn to why the black hole is so big. Will the Prime Minister confirm that his plans will double the national debt?

Answer: The national debt, even after the difficulties that we go through, will be lower as a percentage of national income than in France, Germany, Italy and Japan, and almost certainly in America. The message that the Leader of the Opposition is trying to communicate is that we can do something without spending any money. The truth is that his policy ends up doing absolutely nothing to give real help to families and businesses now. If he has a proposal, it means that he would have to spend to meet it. The fact is that the Conservatives would do nothing in the end and leave the families of Britain without real help and support. We are not going to take the do nothing road of '80s and the '90s; we are going to give real help to families and businesses now.

Secondary information