Finance (No. 2) Bill

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Tuesday 1st April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)]

Mr Deputy Speaker, I find these financial debates deeply frustrating and often very bad for my blood pressure, particularly when I follow—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

We do not want you to collapse—the hon. Lady does not have to speak if it has such a great effect.

[Julie Hilling]

I assure you, Mr Deputy Speaker, that I will not collapse. I might just get a little excited.

I find speeches such as that just made by the hon. Member for Redcar (Ian Swales) exceedingly frustrating. The Government say that they want to build a fairer society, but fairer for who? Their actions certainly are not fair for the 2.5 million people seeking work and the nearly 1 million young people still being left on the scrapheap. The Chancellor says that this is a Budget for makers, doers and savers, but it does nothing for those who are making do and who, far from saving, find themselves deeper and deeper in debt.

The worst thing is the continual ridiculous comment that the global financial crash was caused by my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown). Powerful though he is, he did not bring down the world economy. Labour’s public investment did not cause the global credit crunch. Building new hospitals and schools and recruiting tens of thousands of extra nurses, doctors, teachers and police officers in Britain did not cause the sub-prime mortgage defaults in the USA that started the collapse of financial institutions throughout the world. It was not Labour’s public spending that triggered the world’s economic crisis but the global interdependency of reckless banking that triggered an economic meltdown in Britain and across the globe.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. The hon. Member for Macclesfield (David Rutley) should answer the first intervention before we start on the next. I am sure that we can allow the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg) to intervene after that.

[David Rutley]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, but I hear a noise coming from North East Somerset, so I will give way at this point.

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

Order. The problem is this. I think that the hon. Member for Macclesfield rather than his hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset is meant to answer the intervention from the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones).

[David Rutley]

I will gladly do that. Throughout the debate, the hon. Member for North Durham has persistently made points that have been answered by Government Members, and many of them have been incorrect. He needs to focus on the work that we have done to reduce the deficit, which he clearly has not welcomed.