Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Sheila Gilmore

Wednesday 20th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) (Con)]

It is perhaps not surprising that as a former Chief Whip, albeit one of relatively short duration, I rise to support the Budget set out by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but that is what I do.

It is a considerable tribute to the strength of the Government’s purpose that the measures the Chancellor has announced today will be enacted. The Budget takes place against an extraordinarily difficult background. I cannot remember, in 26 years on and off in this House, a more difficult set of circumstances in which a Chancellor has had to craft the Budget, nor such a heavy volume of advice across all media, much of which has been contradictory. The article in last Saturday’s Financial Times by Terry Leahy, which set out the case for the morality of low taxation, is well worth reading and sets out an argument that we do not hear often enough in this House. The article was blessed with a cartoon that showed the Chancellor in a trench surrounded by mud, blood and barbed wire, and wearing a tin hit. He may well feel, after the past few days, that that is not a bad summation of where he stands.

[Sheila Gilmore]

Does the right hon. Gentleman really think that that is a good image with which to portray his Chancellor, since the squaddies were in the trenches and the first world war generals kept sending them out to be killed? Surely that is not an image that the right hon. Gentleman wants to portray.

[Mr Mitchell]

That was not my image, but the image in the Financial Times. Nor was it of a general, but of a soldier serving in the trenches.

Hemmed in as the Chancellor is, he steers between the Scylla of debt that must be paid down and the Charybdis of growth that must be fought for and secured. I believe that today he has made the right decision in the long-term interests of the country, and I want to focus on those two key issues in my brief remarks.

In terms of the Charybdis of growth, I think he has picked up on the excellent work done by Lord Heseltine, particularly in its reference to Birmingham, and on what we can do in local economies to ensure that growth is boosted.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Sheila Gilmore

Wednesday 14th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

7. What recent progress he has made in bringing forward legislative proposals to set official development assistance at 0.7% of gross national product.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

The coalition Government have set out how we will stand by the United Kingdom’s promise to invest 0.7% of national income as aid from 2013. The Bill is ready and we will legislate when parliamentary time allows.

[Sheila Gilmore]

May I therefore take from that answer that the Bill will be in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech?

[Mr Mitchell]

It would be quite wrong of me to anticipate the contents of the Gracious Speech, but as I have explained, the Bill is ready to go and will proceed when parliamentary time permits.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Sheila Gilmore

Wednesday 8th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore]

One of the key priority areas for UN Women will be political empowerment of women. What plans does the Secretary of State’s Department have for backing up this work in Governments and legislatures around the world?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right. It is incredibly important to put girls and women at the centre of everything we do in development, which is what empowerment is. We are watching very carefully how the agency is developing. We have given nearly £660,000 as transitional funding to the agency and offered support staff on secondment. I am confident that once the plan is produced we will be able to fund it. I am sure that she will understand, however, that it is right to commit taxpayers’ money only when we can see what it is being spent on.