Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Brooks Newmark

Friday 22nd March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I am going to make some progress. The right hon. Gentleman will have plenty of time to contribute and I want to finish responding to the intervention from the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones). Capital spending was set to fall. The plan that Labour left was to lower capital spending and there is no way around that. He cannot talk about capital spending rising because it was set to fall. We are bringing borrowing down. Labour has no plans at all for that and would raise borrowing.

[Mr Brooks Newmark (Braintree) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the bottom line is that today more men are in work than ever before, and more women are in work than ever before? That is the most important thing for our constituents.

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I was going to come on to that. I agree with my hon. Friend, and our employment levels put us in a better position than almost everybody else in Europe. We have more people in work and lower levels of unemployment. To be honest, people in Spain or France would give their eye teeth for the figures that we have today. Labour would push the cost of borrowing higher and higher, the deficit would spiral and the world community would not lend to us except at the highest rates possible. We would be rather like Spain or, in some senses, Italy.