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Fiscal Responsibility Bill

I have acknowledged in the past, and will acknowledge again, that the Chancellor is right to be concerned about debt. He is also right to warn that it is possible to cut too deep and too quickly. Navigating a course from our current dire position to calmer waters is a real challenge for the Chancellor and for whoever is in government over the next decade or more, but it is a great political and economic challenge that requires great political and economic skill from the Chancellor, the Prime Minister and the rest of the Government. It does not require legislation of the sort that is before us this evening.