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Economic Recovery

If the hon. Gentleman will let me speak, the shadow Chancellor laid out pretty clearly a menu of different things that a new Conservative Government will introduce. He did not at any point say that it was an exclusive list, but it was intended to give a direction of travel and to show the rough, overall approach that a Conservative Government would take. It is too early to lay out one’s plans in full, not least because we do not know what appalling inheritance we are likely to have. That is partly a result of the Government’s failing to face up to the simple facts of the budget deficit. As I said, we have also published longer-term proposals for the economy, entitled "Reconstruction: Plan for a Strong Economy". When it comes to supply-side reform, no single policy can achieve everything, but we have begun to set out a programme of reform that I believe will be no less radical than the one that restored the UK’s economic competitiveness in the 1980s and in the 1990s. We need to save and invest more for the longer term, and achieve a model that is both greener and more sustainable. Most of all, we need to send a powerful signal that Britain is still open for business. With the right combination of monetary activism, fiscal responsibility and supply-side reform, we can rebuild confidence in the British economy and take full advantage of recovery. That is the Conservative strategy for the recovery. It is the only sustainable route from austerity to prosperity. The other choice—the Government’s choice—is a recovery built on yet more debt and yet more Government spending, which is just like an economic boom built on debt. It is living on borrowed time; a course which, in the name of patriotic duty, must be rejected.