Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Connarty Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I am glad the hon. Gentleman has asked me that question. I agree that customers who have been mis-sold products need quick redress, so I have pushed the FSA and it has agreed to implement a six-month maximum time scale for the banks to complete the review and provide the redress. I have also asked the banks and they have agreed to stop payments on these products for businesses facing financial difficulty.

[Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

The core purpose of the Treasury is to ensure the stability and prosperity of the economy. I can announce today that Budget 2013 will be on Wednesday 20 March.

[Michael Connarty]

I thank the Chancellor for probably the most complete answer he has given today, at a time when every city in our countries has food kitchens feeding the poor and in London people are queuing up to get second-hand reject food from stores and Pret A Manger. I know that the Chancellor borrowed £425 million from the good causes fund of the lottery for the Olympics, and the National Audit Office has said there is an estimated £377 million profit from the Olympics. Could he now return that to the good causes so they can give it to the charities looking after the poor in our country, which he clearly is not?

[Mr Osborne]

It is a credit to those who delivered the Olympic games that they came in under budget. The Olympic underspend is money which, if we spent it, would add straight to the deficit. It is not a pot of money sitting in some Government bank account. That would be a difficult decision to take and would have to be balanced alongside other decisions, but I make a broader point: we are trying to sort out the economic problems that this Government inherited. The problems that the hon. Gentleman talks about are problems caused by the deepest recession and the biggest financial crisis of the 21st century, and perhaps one day a Labour MP will get up and apologise for it.