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The Economy

Let me say to the hon. Lady that we believe that this is very serious. It is exactly right to provide additional support to businesses and families across the country, and to use Government support to help people. The hon. Lady’s party opposes that. Her party repeatedly denies the economy the support it needs and it is not prepared to put in the additional investment that the economy needs. She needs to recognise the importance of being prepared to put your money where your mouth is in order to support the economy at a time when it needs that support. The biggest bank in the world would have defaulted on its loans if the US Government had not stepped in. Governments across the world were right to step in and prevent the banking system from collapsing and they were right to step in to ensure that banks are strong enough to withstand the global recession and to start cleaning up banks so that they can get lending to businesses and first-time buyers going again. The shadow Chancellor has also dismissed the significance of global action and has said that it has limited effect, yet at a time when world trade has dropped so substantially, when the world economy is contracting for the first time since the second world war and when poorer countries are at even greater risk, only co-ordinated global action can get us through. Japan, Germany and Italy are all in deeper recession than the UK.