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Welfare Reform and Incapacity Benefit

I urge right hon. and hon. Members to reject the Opposition motion and support the amendment. We have had a short debate, but there have been several thoughtful, valuable and eloquent contributions, especially from Labour Members. It is bizarre that Her Majesty’s loyal Opposition called a debate on this matter. Opposition days give Opposition parties the opportunity to lay out their alternative stall on what they would do if they were in government, but the official Opposition utterly failed to do that. Let me cite just one phrase from the speech made by the right hon. and learned Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind). He said at some point during his very long contribution that logic is the art of going wrong with confidence. That meaningless and illogical phrase attempts to mask the fact that the official Opposition have no ideas, no policies and no understanding of the issue. I am happy to welcome the Conservative party’s belated conversion to the importance of welfare reform, but most people will share Labour Members’ cynicism and think that its newly born interest has more to with short-term opportunism than long-term opportunity. Today’s somewhat pathetic attack on our record was a cover for a policy vacuum, rather a recipe for serious welfare reform.