Prime Minister's question asked in the House of Commons, by Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Conservative). It was answered on Wednesday, 10 December 2008 on behalf of the Prime Minister.

Engagements

Question: The difference between us and the Prime Minister is that while he thinks he is saving the world, we are talking about businesses in the real world in the British economy. The Governor of the Bank of England says:"““The single most pressing challenge to domestic economic policy is to get the banking system to resume lending””." If the Prime Minister was not wasting so much time and everyone's money on his pointless VAT cut, he could have spent more time on this. Just as the Government supported lending between the banks, is it not now time to underwrite lending to businesses? Is that not the way to keep them afloat and to keep people in work? Will the Prime Minister now finally accept our proposal for a national loan guarantee scheme to make sure that happens?

Answer: The right hon. Gentleman is refusing to spend any taxpayers' money in helping us out of this difficulty. As for his rejection of the VAT cut we are giving to consumers to enable them to spend, I hope he will ask the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee to apologise, when saying that he was against the VAT cut, for asking:"““How will it help the poor to give them a few pence off consumer items they don't need?””" If ever that was uncaring Conservatism—the right hon. Gentleman should ask the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee to apologise.

Secondary information