Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between John McDonnell and Yvette Cooper

Tuesday 22nd March 2016 Commons Chamber

[John McDonnell]

Let me finish this point.

The simple fact is that the sums in the Budget, as my right hon. Friend pointed out, simply do not add up anymore. They simply do not compute.

[Yvette Cooper]

The shadow Chancellor will be aware that page 26 of the Red Book states that the Chancellor will set out plans to meet the welfare cap by this autumn, and that page 198 of the OBR report says that that will require further welfare savings of £3 billion a year. Did he hear the Chancellor say clearly this afternoon that he was going to ditch the plans for £3 billion a year of additional welfare cuts by the end of this Parliament?

[John McDonnell]

Cuts upon cuts, and who to? The most vulnerable in our society.