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Treasury and Work and Pensions

No. The Queen’s Speech carries forward, too, the central purpose of Labour in government, keeping our promises to the people to build a strong Britain, where economic strength and social justice together ensure opportunity for all. We have heard a lot of references in this debate to welfare reform. The previous Conservative Government’s welfare reform policies were a total failure. The number of children living in poverty doubled. The number of people claiming lone parent or incapacity benefit trebled. Twice in a decade, the number of people unemployed exceeded 3 million.