---

Pre-Budget Report

I believe that cutting VAT, from which everyone can potentially benefit quickly, and the measures that I have implemented to reduce the amount of income tax that the lower paid pay, to increase child benefit and increase the amount of money going to pensioners will all benefit people in this country, as well as the economy as a whole. To stand back and do nothing—that is what we saw in the 1980s and the 1990s, when I think that the hon. Gentleman would have taken a different view—and thereby allow a recession to be deeper and longer would be more painful for the whole of the country, including the people whom he represents. I am not prepared to follow that course.