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Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review

I thank the shadow Chancellor for his response. It strikes me that he might have benefited—[Interruption.] ... The shadow Chancellor might have benefited from rehearsing his lines a bit longer before he delivered them. Listening to him and to some of his colleagues, it is striking that they find it difficult to acknowledge in this Chamber that we have one of the strongest and most stable economies in the world. They have no difficulty in doing so outside this Chamber when talking to business audiences, when they have to concede that thanks to the stewardship of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister over the past 10 years we have a very strong and stable economy. It is precisely that stability that will enable us to deal with the international uncertainty that we now face. Another striking thing about what the hon. Gentleman said—as he desperately confers with his colleagues on the Front Bench—is how on earth he thinks he can maintain stability when he has made promises during the past week on inheritance tax, stamp duty and tax credits and has no means of delivering on those spending commitments. He has a black hole—£6 billion that he cannot find. When he was talking about inheritance tax, the hon. Gentleman said that he set great store by independent experts, so I thought I would check to see which independent expert advised the Conservatives on their inheritance tax policy. I listened to the Leader of the Opposition as he went round the television studios last week, and he kept referring to Accountancy Age as the authority for the fact that there were so many people not paying tax. I read Accountancy Age and found out the source of this independent expert, and it turned out to be an article in a Sunday newspaper. And when I read the Sunday newspaper to find out where its figure came from, I learned that it was an ““unnamed tax expert””. How on earth can we have any confidence in a man who wants to be Chancellor when he bases his estimates on what is in a Sunday newspaper, not on firm evidence? If the Opposition make promises that they cannot afford, there will be instability, increased borrowing and taxation rises elsewhere, or cuts in health, education and other areas. It is precisely such instability that got the Conservatives into so much trouble when they were last in government. The choice is between an affordable tax cut and irresponsible, unaffordable promises being made by the Conservative party. The second striking thing relates to my announcement in my speech that we were able to spend £2 billion on health and education. I noticed that at no point did the hon. Gentleman say whether he would match that commitment. Now, next week and during the next few months, we shall continue to ask the Conservatives whether they are prepared to meet our commitment on health and education. The truth is that they cannot afford to; they are already committed to reductions in tax and increases in expenditure that they cannot afford because they have not identified how they would carry them out. The hon. Gentleman criticised us by saying that health spending was not rising as fast as it should. I came into possession of certain information just a few hours ago, and I can tell the House that we are spending more on health than the Conservatives thought. Helpfully, one of their Members—perhaps someone waiting to cross over to us in the next few months—left the Tory crib sheet in the photocopier in the House of Commons. There is a suggested question on this and, by the way, I have all the suggested questions. [Hon. Members: ““Answer!””] I intend to answer the question that they have for me in the document. It asks whether the Chancellor can confirm that growth is only 3.5 per cent. a year. The health increase is at 4 per cent. a year—more than the Conservatives thought. It is obvious that if the hon. Gentleman had his way, we would have a series of unaffordable promises on tax and spending that his party could not meet. In contrast, we will continue to take no risks with stability and we will continue to build the stability our economy needs because that is the best way of protecting the interests and aspirations of people in this country.