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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

We told the Chancellor radically to reform corporation tax. Only a few days afterwards, in the Budget he was forced to follow our lead—Conservative policy again. We certainly congratulate him on that. We told him to grow his spending slower than the economy. In his Budget, he is finally sharing the proceeds of growth—Conservative policy. [Interruption.] I can tell the Government deputy Chief Whip that if the Chancellor keeps following Conservative policy, we shall of course congratulate him. As the Chancellor has paid us such a tribute by borrowing a few of our clothes, perhaps we should be a little generous. After all, he is fully entitled to argue that having failed to take the economy in the right direction as Chancellor, now, borrowing our approach to get him on track, he will take the country in the right direction as Prime Minister. He is fully entitled to claim that he can rise to the challenges of the 21st century and that the Budget will allow him to turn over a new leaf—greeting his colleagues with a cheerful smile and a listening ear, winning the trust of his most senior civil servants and bringing about a new open style of government, in which decision making is a shared responsibility animated by a generous spirit of give and take. I do not ask the House to listen to the views on that matter of a mere Opposition spokesman, but to those of the Chancellor’s colleagues—and not just the right hon. Member for Birkenhead, whom I mentioned earlier; and not just the right hon. Members for North Tyneside and for Darlington (Mr. Milburn), who collaborated last year to sabotage the Chancellor’s Budget. I bet the Chancellor cannot wait for them to turn up this year.