Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

It is a policy being delivered by a Conservative Chancellor and a Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary. The hon. Gentleman is right that together we have taken millions of the low-paid out of income tax. Of course, that is also delivering a tax cut to 25 million working people, and there is more to come next April. It is one of the ways that, by securing the economic recovery and having credible policies with the public finances, we can help people by, for example, increasing the tax-free allowance.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

2. What recent assessment he has made of the effect of fiscal policy on family incomes.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

8. What recent assessment he has made of the effect of fiscal policy on family incomes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kerry McCarthy]

I thank the Minister for that reply, although he completely failed to talk about the real issue that I was hoping to raise: the extent to which ordinary families are being hit incredibly hard by the Government’s policies. We are hearing from Citizens Advice that inquiries about food banks have risen by 78% over the past six months, and one in four families is having to borrow to provide school uniforms. What are the Government doing about those real issues affecting real people?

[Sajid Javid]

I must say that if the hon. Lady is genuinely interested in the challenges that families face, she should recognise the causes: Labour’s recession, the deepest in our post-war history; Labour’s record budget deficit, the deepest in our post-war history; and Labour’s bank bail-outs, the largest the world has ever seen.