---

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

I shall give way in a moment, but I wish to make this point. The Chancellor considered proposals to cut the deficit faster and with deeper and immediate cuts, but concluded that such action would throw people out of work, threaten the recovery and lead to more debt, not less. He also rejected deeply unfair plans to cut child tax credits from middle income families and to cut child trust funds too while promising an inheritance tax cut that would benefit millionaires to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds. He concluded that to refuse to go ahead with the national insurance rise from next April and instead put all the burden of deficit reduction on cutting spending would require deep and savage cuts across all our public services, including our children's centres, colleges and schools. To take the road of drastic and immediate cuts in front-line services and family benefits would be reckless and unfair, and that is not this Government's choice. I want to set out the detail of how my Department will be affected by Budget and pre-Budget report decisions, but I shall first give way to the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash). If the right hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Mr. Salmond) has had time to learn about what is in the Budget, he will probably have thought of his intervention as well.