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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this year's Budget debates. Last Wednesday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had a choice to make. He could have corrected the judgment he made last summer in the light of December's stall in growth and the huge instability in the oil market, but he made a different choice: he chose to continue with his £81 billion of public spending cuts. Notwithstanding the remarks made by the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom), I fear that the Government's supply side measures will not produce a revolution in entrepreneurialism. The evidence for that is the Chancellor's own growth forecasts. The forecasts for the early years have been reduced by far more than those for the later years have been increased, and that is because is everything is dwarfed by the massive fiscal retrenchment. The cuts are deeply unfair and they are a strategic blunder. I wish to focus for a moment on the cuts to the poorest families: the cuts to the social fund. At the beginning of March, the Department for Work and Pensions announced an immediate end to crisis loans for cookers and beds. Why? Before the election, the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb), who is now a Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, said:"““People who apply for crisis loans are desperate and have nowhere else to turn…The Government has got to practice what it preaches to the banks and make more cash available through these loans to help families through hard times.””" Now he prioritises sticking to the Budget and says:"““We need to ensure that crisis loan support is correctly targeted at those who need it most””." Does he honestly believe that bedding is not essential? Does he think that mothers of disabled and incontinent children do not need beds and bedding? Can Government Members imagine how a mattress smells after six months' use by an incontinent child?