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Amendment of the law

I think the hon. Gentleman overdoes it. A more balanced view would be welcome not just from the shadow Chancellor, but from him. We have made significant inroads into child poverty on the most testing definition of relative poverty. [Interruption.] Conservative Members shout from sedentary positions, but we all know the truth: child poverty would be far worse if they had their way and if they were in power. There would be no money to tackle child poverty or the housing situation. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor made money available for housing, and it is important that he was able to do that even at these difficult times. The problem for the shadow Chancellor is not simply that he opposes fiscal action, wrong-headed and isolated though that makes him. Obviously, his policies would make the recession deeper, longer and more painful. His problem is also that he does not even follow his own strictures about the 1930s. The Conservatives' policy on spending is interesting: their argument is that we should cut spending now. In January, the leader of the Conservative party was very clear when he said:""let's say there's an election April this year…I'd immediately instruct my ministers to go into their departments and say instead of the increase of perhaps 2 per cent. real terms you're expecting, it's a 1 per cent. real terms increase"." I do not think that there is any doubt about what that means. It means cuts in spending. It means taking away money that has been promised to schools and hospitals.