Policy for Growth

Debate between Jamie Reed and Andrew Bridgen

Thursday 11th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Reed]

I do not disagree with those facts, but I do not think that they are germane to the “Public bad, private good” mantra that we are hearing; quite the opposite, in fact.

The findings of the PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis are self-evident. The Chancellor has confirmed that as a result of his choices, the public sector will lose 500,000 jobs. PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated that that will cost at least a further 500,000 private sector jobs, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has said that the Government’s plans will cost 1.6 million jobs over the course of this Parliament. All the while, in the face of the facts, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor persist with their economic medicine irrespective of the condition of the patient, like Elizabethan physicians with an absolute belief in the benefits of leeches.

As was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley East (Michael Dugher), for communities like ours what matters is where the pain is felt. Of course we want to see growth in all sectors throughout the country.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mr Reed]

If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will not give way again. I have already done so twice.

At present, however, the Government have no growth policy at all for areas such as mine which depend heavily on the public sector.

There are only 650 parliamentary constituencies. It would not be difficult to undertake an impact analysis of the effects of these economic policies and spending cuts on each constituency. That could be done in short order, but it clearly has not been done. Why not? Is it because the analysis would demonstrate the pain and misery these economic policies will cause in areas and communities such as mine? In the absence of such analysis, policy is demonstrably being both produced and prosecuted in ignorance of its likely effects. What kind of policy is that?

The International Monetary Fund has told the Government to develop a plan B. The Government must produce a plan B, and, in the interests and spirit of the new politics, it should be brought before the House and debated so Members of this House can express their views on it.

The likely consequence of Government economic policy is that areas such as mine will suffer more than other parts of the country. Future Labour Governments will have to reverse that decline, but we will never be able to turn the clock back for those whose aspirations went unfulfilled, for those whose dreams were destroyed and for those whose lives were blighted as a result of this Government’s current economic policies. My constituents and this country deserve better, and I ask the Government to think again.