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The Economy

I have given way to the hon. Gentleman already and I now want to make some progress as many hon. Members wish to speak. The Prime Minister said clearly when he was on that plane to Washington that he had nothing to apologise for. We can picture the scene—standing in the aisle, his hand gripping the headrest ever tighter, and trying hard to control his rage as he says with menace, "I have nothing to apologise for." It is the "je ne regrette rien" moment of this recession. The moment when the hubris is exposed, and when we realise just how out of touch the Prime Minister has become. Of course, those around the Prime Minister realise it too. The Chancellor is urging him to apologise. The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, one of the Prime Minister’s closest allies, is urging him to apologise, we understand. But the Prime Minister will not listen, because he genuinely believes, deep in his bones, that he has nothing to apologise for. Because that betrays such a deep misunderstanding of what has happened to the British economy in the long years that he has been in charge of it, it shows that he cannot possibly be the man to learn the mistakes of the past and lead our country into a better and more sustainable future. If Labour Members will not listen to that argument made by a Conservative, they should listen to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. She said:""You can’t just pretend you weren’t there...if you don’t have any acknowledgment of anything then…where do you get permission to give them a vision of where the future needs to be?"" That is what she is telling the Prime Minister who chairs the Cabinet to which she belongs. Britain is in the deepest recession that it has known for a generation. The IMF predicts that alone in the world, our economy will shrink next year as well. We have the highest budget deficit in our peacetime history, and we are storing up such debts that it will be our children and grandchildren who end up paying them off. The economic model that the Government pursued for 10 years was built on debt and it has failed. Now the blizzard of schemes announced by the Government to tackle the recession is failing too. Ministers have confused a headline in the newspaper with real help now for their constituents, and we have a Prime Minister who will apologise for nothing and who is deeply disconnected from the reality of the economic mess he has created. The country desperately needs change. And it is the weakness of a Government, who dare not call an election, that they stand in the way of that change. The sooner they go the better, for the sooner then we can begin a recovery.