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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

We are in this country increasing spending and investment, and both are generating growth in the economy. I have to say that the people of Denmark and Ireland did not have 18 years of Tory Government and a lack of investment in the infrastructure of the country to contend with. As I said at the outset, we have had a comprehensive, informative and wide-ranging debate. It ranged from the customary prophet-of-doom contribution that Labour Members have come to expect from the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), who has predicted imminent recession in this country yearly since we came to power, to the enlightened and positive contribution of my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster, North (Edward Miliband), who set a series of challenges for the shadow Chancellor, all of which he signally failed to answer. My right hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr. Clarke) eloquently expressed support for disabled people and the poor of the world. He has supported those issues for many years. The hon. Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) sought the safety of the Back Benches from which to make a significant number of calls for further public spending in his constituency. I am sure that the shadow Chancellor took note of that. However, it was not nearly as damaging a contribution from the Back Benches as that of the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh), who gave the game away in a sedentary intervention. As the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton sought to set a clear dividing line on tax, the hon. Member for Gainsborough interrupted and suggested that his Front-Bench spokesman meant tax cuts. In their individual ways, several hon. Members recorded genuine improvements in their constituencies, including my hon. Friends the Members for Hartlepool (Mr. Wright), for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman), for Stoke-on-Trent, North (Joan Walley) and the hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson). They acknowledged the opportunities that my right hon. Friend’s Budget gave their communities. Much has been said in the debate about productivity and competitiveness, not least in the contributions of the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe and the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable). Business in the UK needs stability above all. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has delivered stability that the International Monetary Fund described as ““remarkable””. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has already noted that UK has the lowest barriers to entrepreneurship of any major economy. The Budget does even more to support business, not least the 575,000 more small and medium-sized enterprises that have been founded in the UK since 1997. UK Trade & Investment will promote the United Kingdom abroad. We will establish a new business advisory council and enshrine in law the Hampton code of deregulatory practice. There will be specific budgets for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to reduce the burden on business. We will extend the research and development tax credits. We have half the productivity gap of France. We have closed the gap with Germany, we are ahead of Japan and we are keeping up with the United States. It is remarkable—[Interruption.]