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The Economy

Let me make two points about the hon. Gentleman’s comments on debt. First, as I said to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable), we are no longer a reserve currency and our credit worthiness is now in question. Two countries have already had their credit worthiness reduced. Secondly—this is a problem that the hon. Member for Twickenham did not address—there is overall external debt, private and public together. It is now about 400 per cent. of GDP, three quarters of it payable in the next year. We have a serious credit worthiness problem and, if we go over the cliff, that will do much more harm than small-scale public spending.