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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

I am not going to give way for a little while, as I need to make some progress in order to let other Members respond. Our proposals will cut the deficit in three ways: through growth; through tax; and through tighter spending. The Conservatives curiously appear to be opposed to all three of those. First, we know that they are backing less growth and that they want less tax. They are silent on where they will find any spending squeeze, and they still want to cut borrowing further and faster. They talk about credibility, yet if they went into the jobcentre with sums like that we would send them on a basic numeracy course; their figures simply do not stack up. Their approach would put growth at risk by cutting support when the economy needs it most. Secondly, the Conservatives oppose many of the tax measures that we need. The Government have set out plans for £19 billion in tax increases in order to bring the deficit down. That is a tough thing to do and it is a responsible thing to do to bring the deficit down, but yesterday the Conservative leader attacked every one of those tax increases. The Conservatives have not proposed a single tax measure to bring the deficit down, so perhaps they could tell us now whether they support or oppose the tax action that we are taking and whether or not they are prepared to put forward tax measures, which are difficult, in order to ensure that borrowing is brought back down. The hon. Member for Tatton talks about a bank tax, but he knows that that is completely undeliverable in a single country and he has not talked about any possible measures that will make a real difference in helping to bring the deficit down. The Conservatives need to tell us whether they support the national insurance increase, whether they support the new top rate of tax and whether they support the cut in tax relief on top pensions. There is silence from the Conservative Members, yet they will not say what they would do instead. As for the claims made by the hon. Member for Tatton about personal allowances, either he does not understand how upratings work or he has been deliberately misleading and disingenuous—or perhaps he just wants to spend an extra £2 billion out of the blue. On any of those counts, he is not fit to be Chancellor. Personal allowances and benefits have been uprated with the autumn inflation figures since the late '70s. Changes in prices after that are picked up in the following year's ratings. In some years, by the time spring is reached inflation has decreased since the autumn measure, as it did substantially last year. If Conservative Members are saying that allowances should be uprated by more this year, I presume they also think that allowances should have been cut last year—they were not. Let us consider what has happened over the past two years. Some 22 million basic-rate taxpayers are paying £145 less in real terms, on average, compared with the situation in April 2008. If Conservative Members suddenly want to ditch the decades-old way in which allowances have been calculated, they should tell people how they are prepared to pay the one-off £2 billion cost of changing the system this year. Once again, they say that they want borrowing to be lower, but they also somehow want magic money to pay for tax cuts too. They never face up to the serious consequences of these decisions; all we get is the political posturing, never the serious decision making. Thirdly, despite the Conservatives' rhetoric, they will not sign up to any spending squeezes. They say that they want to cut further and faster, but they will not tell us any serious measures to bring spending down. They complain that we should set out more detail for 2013, but they will not even say what they will do in 2010. They say that they will make cuts in 2010, yet the next financial year is just 11 days away. The hon. Member for Tatton says that he does not have enough information to set out his proposals for 2010-11, but we set out our spending plans for 2010-11 in 2007. How long does he need? How much information does he need in order to be able to tell us where he wants to find cuts in next year's money? Next year's money is part of the existing comprehensive spending review. We set out those plans many years ago, yet his party still cannot work out what it wants to do with next year's money—with just 11 days to go, the Conservatives still cannot work it out. They cannot work it out because they are not prepared to be serious and because they are probably hiding something. To be fair to the hon. Member for Tatton, I think he is probably quite good at cutting numbers—after all, under his election campaign leadership he has certainly cut his party's lead dramatically—but he will not tell us what he wants to cut in public spending, because he will not face up to the real decisions that Chancellors need to make in practice. What have the Conservatives said they will do? They have said that they will increase the state pension age for the over-50s—that would not save them any money for years, but it would force people in their 50s to rip up their retirement plans and it would cost men in their 50s about £8,000. The Conservatives have said that they will cut the child tax credit and the child trust fund from families on more than £30,000 or more than £15,000 a year. That came just a few weeks after their leader promised""the most family-friendly manifesto that any party has produced in British political history."" This is family friendly? We always knew that the Conservatives had a narrow view of "family", but this shows that they have a pretty sinister view of friendly too. I say to the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats that they should rethink this. The Labour party set out yesterday—[Interruption.]