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The Economy

I will give way in a while, but may I be allowed to say something about the report first? It offers a pretty devastating critique not just of the regulatory system created by the Prime Minister in 1997 but—this is in the first half of the report—of a model of economic growth that was based on unsustainable debt, over-leveraged banks and a huge macro-economic imbalance. One would have thought that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who commissioned the report and whose policies are deepening the recession, would be here to debate the economy and defend his approach, but apparently not. We have not had a debate on the economy in Government time since December, and the Government have known about this debate for two weeks. When we suggested it, we were told that there was no pressing international summit or unbreakable commitment that would require the Chancellor’s absence. There is only one conclusion to be reached: the Chancellor of the Exchequer is running away from the debate because he knows that he is losing the debate. A confident Government, and a Prime Minister who meant what he said about restoring the primacy of Parliament, would have relished the chance for the Chancellor to appear before us today.