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Government Regulation

I think that about two thirds of those jobs are in the private sector. As for the additional jobs in the public sector, I do not know what the hon. Gentleman’s definition of ““bureaucrats”” is, but I remember that, when I was in the Department of Health, he and his hon. Friends who sit on the Front Bench used to describe porters, cleaners and other staff who play a very important role in the national health service as ““bureaucrats”” and ““pen-pushers””. That is simply not the case. Perhaps he wants to make such a point in his own speech. My job is to enlighten him, as he rightly said, and if he will bear with me, I intend to try to do so. The second problem with the right hon. Gentleman’s speech is that he needed to show that his own record and that of his party supported the case that he made this evening. Frankly, it does not. His own record in government and that of the Conservative party fail to match the rhetoric that he deployed in his speech tonight, and I want to return to that point in a minute.