Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Earl Ferrers (Conservative). It was answered on Wednesday, 15 July 2009.

Government Expenditure

Question: My Lords, I fear the Minister telling me to go and do my homework, but can he explain how he can say that government expenditure is going to go up while the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, says that it is going to go down?

Answer: My Lords, I stand by my statement. I do not think my noble friend Lord Mandelson said that public expenditure will go down. What he said was entirely consistent with the Government’s position, which is that there will be a need to rebalance the economy once we come out of the recession, precisely to react to the bringing forward of capital expenditure, which has been such a significant feature of the Government’s action as we take assertive and successful steps to address the impact of the global economy on our domestic economy.

Secondary information