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Welfare Reform and Incapacity Benefit

Yes, that is precisely what we want to do. I shall shortly come to the Green Paper. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that important point. We should remind ourselves what has happened since 1997. The right hon. and learned Gentleman said we had done nothing since 1997. He is a lawyer, and he should know the importance of studying evidence and drawing conclusions from it. Let me put my evidence to him. There are now more people in jobs than ever before—2.3 million more than in 1997. Unemployment is at its lowest level for nearly 30 years, with long-term youth unemployment 90 per cent. lower than in 1997. With almost three quarters of the working-age population in work, our employment rate is the highest of any of the G8 countries. The right hon. and learned Gentleman, not surprisingly, failed to mention any of those facts. I suspect the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) is likely to follow suit, unless he quickly amends his speech to take into account what I have just said. By supporting people in work and providing financial security for those who cannot work, we have helped 2.1 million children and almost 2 million pensioners escape from levels of absolute poverty since 1997. That is a positive record. We have done it, first, by building on a strong and stable economy, with low inflation, low interest rates and consistent growth—which the Opposition consistently failed to manage—and secondly, by embarking upon a radical transformation of the welfare state, introducing the most comprehensive menu of support ever provided. It is a menu of support tailored to the needs of the individual, focused on the right to work as the best route out of poverty, and balanced by a clear set of responsibilities on the individual seeking benefit. The new deal has helped more than 1.2 million into work since it was started in 1998. The lone parent employment rate has increased by 11 percentage points since 1997. Independent studies have shown that half of the increase in the lone parent employment rate since 1997 can be attributed directly to the impact of the new deal. Because of the measures that we have taken, there are now nearly 1 million lone parents in work and the numbers of lone parents on income support have fallen by more than 200,000 since 1997. When the Conservative party was in power, lone parents were stigmatised rather than supported. It now says that it wants to end its war on lone parents, but it has its work cut out to convince anyone that that is so. The right hon. Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin) talks instead of"““painful cuts in the new deal.””" I am sure that will be a huge comfort to lone parents up and down the country. The new deal for lone parents has helped nearly 320,000 lone parents back into work, yet Conservative Members have confirmed again today that they would scrap it, and so would the Liberal Democrats. Independent research shows that that would not even save money, as the new deal for lone parents saves the Exchequer £40 million a year through reduced benefit payments and increased tax revenues resulting from getting people off benefit and back into work. If the charge of incoherence can be levied at anyone today, it is the right hon. and learned Member for Kensington and Chelsea who is most at risk. We share neither his analysis of the problem nor his proposed solutions. We believe—our welfare reforms are proving this—that Britain can best seize the opportunities and respond to the challenges of social, economic and demographic change, if we support all those who can and want to work to enable them to make their own contribution to our society.