Fiona Mactaggart
Main Page: Fiona Mactaggart (Labour - Slough)
Mr Deputy Speaker
Order. I remind Members to try to keep to the subject of the statement; the Minister is not responsible for previous Government policies.
Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab)
If the Chief Secretary thinks that the biggest risk to jobs is the deficit, why does Britain have a better employment rate among all other European countries than America?
Danny Alexander
The risk that we face is the fact that we have the largest budget deficit in the EU, with the exception of Ireland, that we have a very substantial structural deficit and that growth is lower than forecast. All those things argue for what we are going to do, which is implement a programme to reduce the deficit faster and further than the previous Government proposed. That is the only responsible course to take; profligate spending of the sort we saw in the final days of the previous Government is not responsible.