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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

The hon. Gentleman carefully picked a few years of the 18 years that the Conservatives were in power, because of course if he had cared to look across the entire 18 years he would have seen that there were substantial job losses in manufacturing. It is the case that, for a long time now, structural changes have been taking place in our economy, and that has been happening in other economies as well. There has been a move away from manufacturing towards the service industry. For example, our financial services industry is indisputably a world leader, and it has grown massively since the 1980s. However, manufacturing still represents about 14 per cent. of our gross domestic product, and I gave some examples of where we are doing very well. We have a good story to tell in engineering generally, and in aerospace, the automotive industry and other areas there is good quality employment. I mentioned that manufacturing output was also up. I think that Members in all parts of the House acknowledge that there have been substantial structural changes in our economy. That should not unduly worry us. It is important that we have a balance—that there is a mix. Manufacturing is very important: to coin a phrase, manufacturing matters. However, it is also important that we are able to exploit our service industries, which do well in various parts of the world. When I visit countries such as China and India, people recognise that we have something in the City of London and our financial services industry that other parts of the world do not have. So manufacturing does matter, but what is also important is the strength of the economy overall. On any view, what we see today bears comparison with what we saw in 1993, or in 1983, for that matter.