---

The Budget as it relates to Wales

Does the right hon. Gentleman consider it something of a curiosity that, during the course of the general election campaign, the Labour party recognised the need to reduce Government borrowing by £40 billion, and yet it has challenged his proposals both on tax and on public spending? One of the proposals that the Labour party has welcomed—perhaps less loudly than it has been in the challenges it has made today—is the increase in the threshold at which people pay tax. Given our lower levels of income in Wales, has the right hon. Gentleman assessed how many people in Wales will be assisted by that change?