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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

The hon. Gentleman will hear, as he heard yesterday from our leader, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Clegg), and from my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) and others about our consistent policies, which have been enunciated for weeks and months. We have made clear our position on tax, the deficit and public expenditure. The hon. Gentleman knows, as I do, that on each day of the Budget debate, the case will be put for each party. The difference between our party and his is that we can answer some of the questions about where money should come from and where savings will be made. Having listened to the hon. Member for Tatton this morning and this afternoon—[Interruption.] I told hon. Members that I listened to the hon. Member for Tatton this morning and that I listened to a significant part of what he said this afternoon and had the rest reported to me, so I know that the Conservatives still have no answers to the big questions. All he said was, "You'll have to wait and see". A party that aspires to government, because it is currently the major Opposition party, can do no better, a matter of weeks before the general election, than say, "You'll have to wait and see where we'll find the expenditure cuts that this country needs." That is neither an honest nor a straightforward way of addressing the electorate. If it cannot do that in the Budget debate, a matter of weeks before the general election, the British public will realise that the Tories either have something to hide or that they do not have the policies they need to deal with the current economic crisis. This morning, the hon. Member for Tatton said that this country needed a party with the "energy", "leadership" and "ideas" to deal with our economic crisis. Those ideas were not heard from him this morning, but they have been heard consistently from my right hon. and hon. Friends. We are consistent in our view that fair taxation and a realistic policy to deal significantly and immediately with the deficit are the beginning of the sort of economic policy that we need.