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Public Expenditure

—thanks specifically to the VAT reduction, a point that it made. The hon. Lady is absolutely right that too many people in Wales are still economically inactive, a number that has been brought down sharply by the Government’s policies. Far too many people were left economically inactive in Wales because of the policies of the last Conservative Government, who at one stage were deliberately encouraging people to move from jobseeker’s allowance to incapacity benefit because that reduced the headline rate of unemployment. In contrast, we have been ensuring that those people have been able to get back into work, and that commitment remains undimmed and will continue to be extremely important in the coming months. The hon. Lady rightly asked me about the priority for skills development, and I agree with her that that is an important priority in the coming period. That is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced in the pre-Budget report additional spending from the European social fund and from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills through the Train to Gain programme, which has been doing excellent work, so that people who lose their jobs are able to get access to the training they need and return to work as quickly as possible. Across the UK we have more than half a million vacancies, so now the key is to ensure that people can move into new jobs as quickly as possible if they become unemployed. That is why we will be working with employers, including the Royal Mail and the others listed by my right hon. Friend, and ensuring that we navigate a path that gets Britain through in the best possible shape and in a way that is fair to everybody in Britain and Wales.