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Economic Recovery

That was an extraordinary speech from the Minister, full of quotes from Winston Churchill without quite the style to match them. He provided an incredible example of retro-politics. It is as though he has gone back to the position that the Government held back in the spring, which was to deny the fact that there were any problems with public sector borrowing and the public sector deficit. Indeed, his only mention of the C-word—cuts—was in relation to Conservative policies rather than his own. As was confirmed by the Prime Minister’s conference speech, we seem to have gone back in time to when the Government’s own figures strongly laid out the fact that cuts would have to be made. Conservative Members very much welcome this opportunity to debate the economy. Too often in the past 18 months, the Chancellor and his helpers have sought to avoid debate or tried not to be here for the debates held in Opposition time. My right hon. Friend the shadow Leader of the House noted earlier that only four Labour Members spoke in the full Opposition day debate on the economy on Monday. I await with interest how many we will have today.