Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am extremely grateful. Under the procedures of the House, as colleagues are aware, we must proceed to the next question.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

14. What assessment he has made of the progressive effects of the measures in the June 2010 Budget which have been implemented to date.

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Justine Greening)]

As the House knows, the Government published huge amounts of analysis of the impact of the measures announced in the Budget of June 2010. The majority of the measures have now been implemented. The charts in the Budget book show that the most well-off households make the largest contribution to the fiscal consolidation, both in cash terms and as a proportion of their net income.

[Andrew Gwynne]

I am grateful to the Minister for that reply, but has she seen the analysis produced by the House of Commons Library and my right hon. Friend the Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) showing that the measures in the last Budget hit women three times as hard as they hit men? Why is that?

[Justine Greening]

I do not accept the premise of the hon. Gentleman’s question at all. As ever, what we have heard from the Opposition is a cheap political point-scoring jibe. They might be better advised to come up with an alternative plan for tackling the fiscal deficit. The hon. Gentleman had nothing to say to my response to him, which implied that it is the most well-off households in the country that are bearing the brunt of the fiscal consolidation.