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Amendment of the law

The Labour party has announced—under, I suspect, the same methodology that it used at the last election—£84 billion-worth of cuts. The Conservative party position is that our priority will be to try to tackle the tax increases introduced by the Labour party that will affect the many and not the few. Therefore, there is no commitment here to reverse that particular tax rate—but whether we can reverse it or not, the fact remains that it is a cynical policy. That point brings me to another reason why this tax rate is so cynical. One can see what happened here. As the Government sat down in No. 11 Downing street—or, more likely, No. 10 Downing street—the thinking was not, "How are we going to bring in some tax increases that are good for the UK economy and will not damage its productivity?" Instead, the thinking was more, "What can we do to put the Conservative party in a difficult position?" That is the way that this Government work. The fourth reason why the policy is cynical is that it will not raise the amount of revenue that has been claimed. We do not dispute that it will raise some revenue, but as the IFS has stated today, no account has been taken of the fall in indirect consumer spending that will result from this tax increase, so the Government will not raise as much money as they claim. Let me return to the issue of how this Government operate: they are not thinking about what is best for the country; they are not thinking about addressing the fiscal crisis that we face; the way they operate is all about political positioning and trying to damage their opponents. This is all of a piece; it is consistent with the way that this Prime Minister has operated throughout his career. Even when dealing with his own party colleagues, he blocked public services reform because it suited his own internal party position. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, he abolished the 10p tax rate to try to wrong-foot the Leader of the Opposition. No wonder there is an atmosphere within Downing street that leads people to believe that there are no limits on what can be done to put pressure on their opponents, as we saw over Easter and in the McBride affair. This is a Budget that fails to address the long-term needs of the country and ducks the big issues—it is a cowardly and dishonest Budget. Tony Blair's speechwriter yesterday described it as a Budget of a Government preparing themselves for opposition. The Government have neither the ability nor the desire to govern responsibly, and it is time that they made way for those who can.