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The Economy

If the hon. Gentleman will allow me to make a little progress, I shall give way to him later—and, perhaps, hear whether he supports what Ken Livingstone has been saying about the Prime Minister today. I will give the hon. Gentleman some time to think about that. We might also hear about what the Member sitting next to him, the hon. Member for Dagenham (Jon Cruddas), has written in The Guardian today about how new Labour has lost its spirit of generosity and lost touch with the people of this country. While the hon. Member for Eltham (Clive Efford) reflects on that, let me say this—[Interruption.] May I just add that we support the campaign of the hon. Member for Dagenham for the leadership of the Labour party? A lot of attention has been given in recent weeks in this House, and especially in the media, to the repeated bail-out of the banks and the forthcoming G20 meeting, and I will discuss those on a later occasion, but what I want to draw to the House’s attention today is the failure of the policies that, in the Government’s words, are supposed to be providing "real help now" to families and businesses struggling with the recession. That slogan of "real help now" is a cruel joke to thousands of people who have lost their jobs, and continue to lose their jobs, while this Government dither and delay.