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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. I could not make it better myself. The fact is that this is not a Budget for growth. We have the highest unemployment rate in nearly two decades, with nearly 1 million young people out of work and inflation spiralling out of control. Even Moody's credit rating agency, which all of us have heard so much about from Government Members, are warning that our triple A credit rating could be at risk. What is the price of this failure? It will be another £43.4 billion in borrowing. Yet all the Government can come up with is more of the same: the same old excuses; the same failed policies; and the same old stories from the same old Tories. No number of excuses can hide the fact that the Government have cut too far and too fast, hitting jobs and growth, and putting our recovery at risk. However, there is an alternative. We could get our country's finances back on track by halving the deficit in four years; we could give families and businesses real help by scrapping the VAT increase on fuel; we could repeat last year's tax on bankers' bonuses, and invest the money in building 25,000 new homes and getting 90,000 young people into work; and we could boost the regional growth fund by £200 million. With the Government's first major elections just weeks away, this Budget sets out a very clear choice: between Labour, which will do everything it can to protect jobs and the services people rely on, and this Tory-led Government imposing cuts with barely disguised relish; between Labour, which knows that there are difficult decisions to be made, but will make them in a way that is fair and open, and the broken promises and underhand tactics of the Tories and the Liberal Democrats; between Labour, which will support people into work and get our economy back on track, and a Government who are taking a reckless gamble with the economy that is hurting but not working. In one month's time, people up and down the country will have their chance to send the Government a very clear message—and their voices will be heard.