---

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham). This is the last day of the last Budget of the present Chancellor. I was interested to note a few comments made in William Gladstone’s first Budget speech on 18 April 1853—comments which are strangely relevant to the present day and to what the Chancellor should be trying to achieve:"““These are the proposals of the government. They may be approved, or they may be condemned, but I have at least this full and undoubting confidence, that it will on all hands be admitted, that we have not sought to evade the difficulties of our position—that we have not concealed those difficulties either from ourselves or from others; that we have not attempted to counteract them by narrow or flimsy expedients…While we have sought to do justice to the great labouring community of England by further extending their relief from indirect taxation””." Those are useful lessons from some time ago for the present Chancellor. I wonder whether the House is absolutely convinced that the present Chancellor has not used the ““flimsy expedience”” to which I have just referred and that he has managed to make an effective cut in indirect or, indeed, direct taxation on what William Gladstone called ““the labouring classes””, namely all of us now—perhaps not all of us, but most of us. The Public Accounts Committee was founded four years after that speech, so we are celebrating our 150th anniversary this year. Even in those days, and I hope even more so now, people appreciated the importance of parliamentary audit of the public finances as a key component in driving out waste and ensuring economy and efficiency. Over the years, I have attempted to convince others of my personal mantra. Sometimes it has been a lonely battle, but I remain convinced of its truth: in a growing economy with modest and costed efficiency gains, which are achieved through proper parliamentary audit, it is possible to deliver better public services and sustained and real tax cuts. That is my personal mantra. In a few minutes, I shall show how we might deliver that. For a couple of minutes, I want to leave our problems of affluence, as we are sometimes too self-regarding in this country, and focus on the problems of the poorest of the poor in Africa. I was reminded of that at a meeting here today at which I listened to Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Nigeria, who was talking about some of the problems that his country faces. The meeting was not that well attended—only three other colleagues were there—and was part of the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development’s campaign, ““Live simply so that others may simply live””. We all applaud what the Chancellor has done conscientiously and correctly in the Budget to increase the amount of money that we, as one of the richest countries in the world, contribute to overseas development. The archbishop was telling us about what happens to our money—that is where parliamentary audit is relevant, because the audit of public moneys in Nigeria is notoriously weak—when it gets to Nigeria. He spoke of £100 million a year of our taxpayers’ money going to Nigeria. Despite Nigeria’s being the sixth largest oil producer in the world, and despite the generous provision for help that, once again, we will make to it today, the poor in Nigeria are getting poorer. They are getting poorer even in the Nigerian delta—despite and often because of overseas aid—as a result of massive corruption, which is leading increasing numbers of people in this country to doubt the value of overseas aid. Rather than simply colluding with and congratulating the Chancellor on spending more on overseas aid, the Conservative party and others should put more pressure on him to ensure good civil governance and that the money is properly spent. To return to parliamentary scrutiny and public audit in this country, efficiency gains are increasingly the key element in our debates. I am proud that the Public Accounts Committee has tried to play a part in that, in its modest way, over the past few years. The Committee is surprised that further efficiency gains were claimed in the Budget so soon after the National Audit Office report mentioned by the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable). That impartial report by Parliament’s auditors questioned the credibility of the figure previously claimed—the relatively modest figure of £13.3 billion. Therefore, if the Gershon claims are not in the bag, how credible is the Government’s claim that they will have saved an additional £26 billion by 2011? How ambitious is even that claim given that, as we are repeatedly told, the public sector as a whole spends well over £550 billion? May I give one bouquet to the Government, and particularly to the Chief Secretary? I went to see him last year with the right hon. Member for Swansea, West (Mr. Williams) and a delegation from our Committee, and we requested more transparency. On 21 March, I received a letter from the Chief Secretary, in which he told me:"““We discussed last year transparency in the programme. Departments already account for their programmes and progress in their regular departmental reporting cycle. Reflecting the Committee’s suggestion, I have decided at this time to publish a consolidated breakdown of departmental performance across the three areas of the programme (efficiency gains, workforce reduction and relocation), and to break this down by workstream and cashable element.””" I am grateful to the Chief Secretary, as we have got more transparency, which is important. If we are talking about £26 billion, let us think about what that could achieve.