Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Tuesday 19th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Harriett Baldwin)]

The analysis by the House of Commons Library is fundamentally flawed. First, it assumes that every pound of Government borrowing benefits people. It also does not highlight the fact that it is higher rate taxpaying women such as me, whose child benefit has been ended, who form the largest part of that group. Is the hon. Lady saying that her party wants to reinstate child benefit for higher rate taxpayers?

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

T6. Last year when I held a small business breakfast in Wimbledon, the level of business rates was the biggest issue, so my constituents are understandably delighted with the Chancellor’s permanent doubling of small business rate relief. Will my right hon. Friend say what else he is doing and what else the Government can do to support small businesses to ensure that they invest for growth and further jobs?

Budget Changes

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Monday 21st March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

If I were the hon. Gentleman, I would be a little embarrassed for not being aware that there are no votes on personal independence payments in the Budget resolutions tomorrow.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

The role of the Budget is surely to promote growth and create employment. Has the Minister noticed that the small business rate relief measures have been widely welcomed by the Federation of Small Businesses because they will promote growth and employment across all strata of society?

[Mr Gauke]

Yes; my hon. Friend is absolutely right. There has been strong support from small businesses for the contents of this Budget. This is a Government who are backing small businesses and ensuring that they can provide the growth and employment opportunities that the British people need.

Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Monday 8th February 2016 General Committees

[Mr Gauke]

There is a general view that the UK is strongly determined to address fraud. We have a strong record of budgetary discipline in the EU and with multinational projects, and we have demonstrated that we take fraud very seriously.

From the documents before us, it is hard to draw comparisons between the UK and other member states. There is no directly comparable error rate for the UK’s management of EU funds against which the ECA’s error rate for the EU budget can be measured. To our knowledge, there are no national accounts of major economies, including the UK’s, that can be meaningfully compared with the ECA’s audit of EU accounts. Only a few countries—the UK is one—produce whole of Government accounts. It is hard to compare precisely our record with those of other member states or countries outside the EU. The UK remains determined to root out fraud, wherever it might be.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

Like so many others, I want to say that it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I confess to my right hon. and hon. Friends on the Front Bench that I have not read these documents cover to cover.

[Mr Swayne]

Shocking!

[Stephen Hammond]

It is indeed shocking, although I thought it would be more useful to spend my weekend trying to ensure that my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Zac Goldsmith) is elected in May.

I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashford that it is shocking that this is the 21st year in which the accounts have not been properly audited and signed off. That would not be acceptable in the financial world. With my financial hat on, I read three of the chapters, and I would like to test something with the Financial Secretary. Chapter 3 is about getting results from the EU budget. The common themes include poor performance setting, poor planning and objectives that are not fit for management purposes. My hon. Friend will have noticed that it states that budgetary strategy is not aligned with political strategy, which is an explicit criticism of the inability to make proper financial judgments.

Hidden in the documents—the Commission did not even bother to reply—is paragraph 3.79, which gets to the heart of the lack of results in partnership arrangements. I would like to hear from my hon. Friend exactly how the Government will put pressure on the Commission to respond with more a bit more force than its bland statements.

[Mr Gauke]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. It is traditional in these debates that we focus on error and specifically on fraud, but as I touched upon in my opening remarks the focus on performance should not be forgotten. We welcome the ECA’s increased focus on performance while retaining its valuable role on compliance. That shows there is recognition that compliance without performance will achieve little. Strengthening the ECA’s work on performance could help to maximise the efficiency, economy and effectiveness of EU spending.

It is also in line with Vice-President Georgieva’s budget for results initiative, which aims to develop a more performance-orientated budget that delivers tangible results for EU citizens. We see this as an important opportunity to help to improve the transparency of EU spending to taxpayers, and its value and efficiency. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor made our position clear at ECOFIN last year.

We are working closely with the Commission on this issue, offering our expertise in areas such as transparency and value for money. The Commission is keen to drive this agenda forward. In particular, it is our priority to ensure that this work feeds into the mid-term review of the multi-annual financial framework this year. It is important that the work in this area is joined up with other related initiatives to improve budgetary management, such as proposals for simplification of the common agricultural policy and structural funds, which were launched earlier this year by the Commission, and the wider mid-term review this year.

My hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon raises an important point. Having heard Vice-President Georgieva discuss these matters on a number of occasions, I know that she is clearly very personally committed to a move towards ensuring that performance is at the forefront of how EU money is spent, and that is an initiative that we support and welcome.

[Stephen Hammond]

I am grateful for that response and I am sure that many in this Committee will hope that Vice-President Georgieva’s performance will show the result of that next year.

The one other issue that I just wanted to raise with my hon. Friend is the contentious nature of state aid rules and infringements, because obviously that goes quite far towards the heart of trade. Paragraph 6.39 indicates that there were 14 projects that infringed state aid rules and the Commission’s response is, “We’ll deem whatever action’s necessary.” Given that these projects are obviously usually highly controversial and get to the source of quite a lot of disagreements, can he assure the Committee that we will be pushing the Commission to act where deemed necessary so that action is taken?

[Mr Gauke]

In terms of UK infringement of state aid rules, the mandate of the relevant audit authorities for structural funds in the UK includes checks on compliance with state aid rules. The UK project reference here is not identified by the ECA, so it is not possible to comment on the nature of the errors. However, if my hon. Friend’s concern is about ensuring that state aid rules are properly enforced, I say to him that we will continue to push the Commission to focus on the areas of greatest error, and we think that that would be beneficial in ensuring that the EU state aid regime works as effectively for Europe as it can.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Tuesday 1st December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

The devolution of business rates will retain the system of top-ups and tariffs that currently exist, so there will be no immediate loss to any local authority as a consequence of devolution. The point is that it devolves power to local authorities so that they have stronger incentives to boost growth. Local authorities that grasp that opportunity will see their business rates revenue increase.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the point about last week’s announcement was that it was a defining moment for local authorities? Those local authorities that accept the principle of devolution of business rates can incentivise strong local business growth, and secure a local economy that is strong and that has jobs for its constituents. That is the key point.

[Mr Gauke]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. He puts it very well. That is the key point: it is about ensuring that local authorities have the incentives to boost growth, and then local people can hold those local authorities to account.

Spending Review and Autumn Statement

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Wednesday 25th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

First, the welfare cap I set at the summer Budget, which of course was reduced from the welfare cap in the March Budget, was made lower by the tax credit changes that were put forward. Now that we are not going ahead with those tax credit changes, clearly welfare spending—spending on tax credits— is going to be higher in the first couple of years. That is why the welfare cap is exceeded in those years, but then, as the hon. Gentleman can see in the table on that page, the spending comes below the welfare cap and we achieve the £12 billion of welfare savings on which we fought the general election. He opposed those but in the end did not carry the day with the British public. The long-term savings we have made today to housing benefit are less than £1 billion but they continue into the future, and because of the phasing out in respect of tax credits, by the time we get to 2019-20 those tax credit changes were saving only about £1 billion. That is why that is the case, and I think it is part of a sensible plan to help families in the transition, which is what I was asked to consider. I have been able to use the improvement in the public finances to achieve that.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

We have heard a lot about political careers today. I am sure the Chancellor is on a very different trajectory from the shadow Chancellor. I am not entirely sure that the next minute will help my own, but in the spirt of the Leader of the Opposition, let me read out what David from Wimbledon, who emailed me many times about tax credits over the past month, has just emailed me again to say:

“Can’t fault it so thanks for listening!”

Thank you, Chancellor.

[Mr Osborne]

Obviously, I thank my hon. Friend’s constituent for that comment. If we have improvements in the public finances, we can help families, we can reduce the deficit, as we have done, and we can make the investments in the long-term capital of the country. That is the advantage of having an economic plan that actually produces better results than were forecast, rather than worse results, which is what was happening when Labour Chancellors were giving autumn statements.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

We are investing a record amount in our transport system, and the new roads fund will help with transport investment in England, but there will be consequentials and money for Scotland as well. I make this general observation to the hon. Gentleman: if the Scottish Government think we are not spending enough in Scotland, they can raise taxes on the Scottish people and spend all the money in Scotland. They should have the courage to make that argument to the Scottish people.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

My constituents would like to commend the Chancellor on the long-term economic plan, which is seeing great success in Wimbledon. Does he agree that the Budget measures, such as the apprenticeship levy and the drop in corporation tax, provide an incentive for employers to take on more apprentices and to reduce the productivity gap in the economy, and see further success in the long-term economic plan?

[Mr Osborne]

I thank my hon. Friend for the support he has given and welcome the fact that the people of Wimbledon understand that economic security is the bedrock on which we can support the aspirations of working people. The apprenticeship levy addresses the key problem of the lack of skills in the British economy that has bedevilled us for decades. We are now going to introduce a system whereby companies that train their workforces get rewarded, and companies that do not have to make a contribution to the training that they free-ride off.

Greece

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

As I think we saw in the past week, some of those intemperate statements might have had the exact opposite effect to the one that they were intended to have, which reminds us not to interfere in other people’s democracies.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

Although the bond yields in Spain, Italy and Portugal rose only 12 basis points this morning, and despite what the eurozone said about whatever measures are necessary, the spread over German bonds suggests that there is still a real risk of contagion. Can the Chancellor confirm that thanks to his action, any measures taken by the eurozone will have a very limited impact on the UK financial system and limited cost for the UK taxpayer?

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is right. We have reduced our exposure, as I said, to the Greek economy and, absolutely crucially, the Prime Minister made sure we were out of the bail-out funds for Greece that existed when we came to office. With hindsight, that looks like one of the most important decisions we took.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Gentleman raises a serious question that I suspect this House will have to return to on a number of occasions. We have a clear agreement in the Stormont House agreement that we now expect all parties in Northern Ireland to implement, including Sinn Féin. Frankly, it is not acceptable for any devolved Administration simply to breach the spending limits that have been agreed with the United Kingdom Government, so that is something we will have to address. As he knows, the key is to implement welfare reforms that will not only deliver value for money for the taxpayer, but ensure that more people in Northern Ireland are released from the poverty trap and are able to work.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

Yesterday, borrowing costs across Europe increased as the contagion from the Greek economic crisis spread. May I congratulate the Chancellor on the long-term economic plan, which, in contrast, has brought jobs and growth to the UK economy? May I also urge him to use the Budget to reduce the deficit by increasing resources for infrastructure, such as the £250 million needed for Crossrail 2, which will bring even more jobs to my constituency and to the UK?

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is right to remind the House after an hour and five minutes of Treasury questions that out in the real world there are some serious economic risks, not least the risk that we see growing in Greece of a potential default and exit from the euro. People should not underestimate the damage that that would do to financial confidence. Of course, in the UK we take all steps to prepare for and protect ourselves from such eventualities, but the best thing that a Government can do is to ensure that it is living within its means, that it has a productive economy and that its public finances are in good order. That is what we are going to deliver in this Parliament.

Future Government Spending

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Leslie]

I seem to have hit a nerve with Government Members. I give way to the good-looking one.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

That is one of the few points on which I agree with the hon. Gentleman. He has been quoting selectively from various institutions. He has just quoted the IFS. The director general of the IFS has said that

“if the Conservatives win the election they will neither, despite what the opposition would have us believe, destroy the NHS nor return the welfare state . . . to 1930s level of provision.”

Does the hon. Gentleman accept that, and will he now withdraw his previous comment?

[Chris Leslie]

With the greatest respect, I do not accept that. I will come to that shortly.

When we look at the effect on public finances of the plan that the hon. Gentleman has signed up to with the Free Enterprise Group and with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, the effect on our public services, not least the NHS, could be exceptionally difficult and potentially implausible.

Paul Johnson of the IFS asks:

“How will these cut be implemented? What will local government, the defence force, the transport system, look like in this world? Is this a fundamental reimagining of the role of the state? ... If we move in anything like this direction, whilst continuing to protect health and pensions, the role and shape of the state will have changed beyond recognition.”

Is it any wonder that UKIP has backed Conservative plans? No surprise there.

Be under no illusions—the Conservatives’ pathway for the next Parliament is a statement of intent to wage war on public services, and people need to understand the tremendous risks involved. It is a major threat to the viability of public services, which would wreak havoc especially in non-ring-fenced areas such as policing, border controls, child protection and social care. Such extreme plans would decimate skills, infrastructure, research and development and science, undermining the competitiveness of our economy. Devastation on that scale would not be tolerable, which is why we suspect that the Conservatives have secret plans to hit household finances in other ways.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gauke]

My hon. Friend raises an interesting point, and the big tax cut that this Government have delivered has been the huge increase in the personal allowance that has benefited millions of hard-working people up and down the country.

[Stephen Hammond]

The Minister is right to point out those things, and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Esher and Walton (Mr Raab) pointed out, we have taken many people out of tax altogether. On Labour’s watch, if it were ever to be in government, the deputy leader of the Labour party has already said:

“Yes I think people on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes”.

Therefore anyone earning more than £26,000 will have a tax rise under the next Labour Government. That is what the deputy leader of the Labour party has committed to.

[Mr Gauke]

As I said, the money has to come from somewhere, and middle-income earners are probably pretty high up the list. To be fair, it is not just the 50p rate, although that is the only policy mentioned in the motion. In television interviews, the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury has proclaimed one other policy to reduce the deficit. This is the key to deficit reduction and the policy that will restore public finances to health: a future Labour Government will put up fees for gun licences. How much will that raise? A whopping £17 million—except, to be fair, the shadow Home Secretary has already pledged to spend that money elsewhere.

The Economy

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Wednesday 26th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Chris Leslie]

The previous Government did the right thing after that banking crisis by getting growth moving forward—growth that had the rug pulled from under it by the lack of confidence shown by the Chancellor and the measures he took in that autumn statement back in 2010 and in his emergency Budget.

The Government’s long-term plan is little more than trickle-down economics, which has failed in the past and will fail again in the future. The share of national income held by 90% of earners has shrunk since this Government came to power, whereas the share of the cake held by the wealthiest 1% has—surprise, surprise—gone up.

We need a plan that genuinely delivers a recovery for the many, not just for the few. We do not need the slogan-heavy, content-light, trickle-down plan of Treasury Ministers, but we need action on house building, which is at the lowest level since the 1920s, with a goal of building 200,000 new homes each year by 2020. We need a minimum wage rising as a proportion of average earnings and real incentives for the living wage. We need the expansion of free child care for working parents, paid for by the bank levy that the Government failed so spectacularly to collect. We need a cut in business rates for small firms, rather than a reliance and a focus only on corporation tax cuts for big businesses. We need an independent infrastructure commission to deliver the transport networks that our economy needs, rather than what suits the Government’s short-term political needs. We need to tackle the abuse of zero-hours contracts, we need to hear the Government argue for Britain to play a leading role in a reformed European Union, and we need a real economic plan that can enable us to earn our way towards rising living standards for all, not just for the few. Those are the priorities for next week’s autumn statement.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

rose—

[Chris Leslie]

I will give way one last time.

[Stephen Hammond]

I am interested to hear the hon. Gentleman’s words, but let us write some facts into the debate about living standards. Will he deny the statistic from the House of Commons Library which shows that real average weekly earnings were falling faster between 2008 and 2010 than they were after 2010? Will he deny the statistic which shows that the average earnings of those who had been in a job for over a year have risen by more than 4% in the last year? Will he deny the fact—this, too, is a statistic from the House of Commons Library—that 71% of all the jobs created in the last year have been full-time jobs?

[Chris Leslie]

I do not know where the hon. Gentleman has been, but did he not see the headlines in all the newspapers about the results of the annual survey on hourly earnings that the Office for National Statistics published last week? According to the ONS, the average weekly pay of full-time workers went up by just £1 between 2012 and 2013. That is a rise of just 0.1%, far below the rate of inflation. Prices continue to rise, but pay, wages and earnings do not keep pace with them. Government Members may not realise that. In the world that they inhabit, life is sweet—everything is fine in the world that they inhabit—but for most of our constituents, times are tough and life is getting harder.

--- Later in debate ---

[Priti Patel]

I am looking forward to coming to the hon. Lady’s constituency tomorrow.

I have made it perfectly clear that we have made a good start but the job is not yet finished. The UK currently has the highest rate of growth in the G7; it is over twice that of Germany.

[Stephen Hammond]

My hon. Friend is right that we have made a good start. The Opposition spokesman talked about opinion polls, but, interestingly, he did not talk about the opinion poll showing that the public saw we had done a good job, and that we have an economic competence lead of 26% over the Opposition and their plans.

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right and this brings us back to the heart of this debate. It is about having a long-term economic plan that is tackling the challenges for our economy left by the former Government, while also looking ahead to the future and making sure we have a plan in place.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate this afternoon. It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham). I listened carefully to his remarks, and feel sure that he would have wanted to put it on the record that unemployment in his constituency has fallen by 32% over the past year and youth unemployment by 48%. That fact goes to the heart of what we are talking about today.

I read the Opposition motion extraordinarily carefully last night. I do not want to use unparliamentary language, so I will speak in economic terms. When we talk about being economical with the truth, we should look at the great speech from the Opposition Front Bench. We had not only deficit denial but fact denial. This motion shrinks away from reality. It is economically and historically inaccurate and, as those on the Opposition Front Bench know, economically inept. I am pleased that the motion has at least one virtue: it gives us the chance to remind everyone in this country that Labour left the largest ever budget deficit in peacetime. It caused the mess that this Government are clearing up. Of course, it is historically the job of Conservative Governments to clear up the mess that Labour Governments leave behind.

It was extraordinary that the speech made by hon. Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie) included not only deficit denial, but a denial of facts set out by the Office for National Statistics about the rise in living standards that is beginning due to this Government’s long-term economic policy. We heard no apology from him for the economic mess. No one says that there was not a financial crisis and a banking crisis, but had he listened to my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield North (Nick de Bois)—and responded to my hon. Friend’s point, rather than trying to deny the facts—he would have recognised that the previous Labour Government created a structural budget deficit over a full 10 years, which was why this country had a significantly worse budget deficit than any other European country.

[Chris Leslie]

indicated dissent.

[Stephen Hammond]

The hon. Gentleman shakes his head again. This is not only deficit denial, but fact denial.

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

My hon. Friend will, like me, remember sitting on the Opposition Benches and hearing the former Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), saying that the previous Government had abolished boom and bust.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Hammond]

The former Chancellor certainly abolished boom for much of the time, and he also created busts.

If the hon. Member for Nottingham East reads the ONS statistics, he will see that productivity fell so dramatically while Labour was in government that we had to redefine it. The Labour Government had to redefine long-term unemployment because the numbers were becoming so large. They put people on a course—any course; it did not matter whether it was relevant to a job—and did not create any apprenticeships.

One of the messages that will ring out from the Chamber is Labour’s failure to apologise. Until the Opposition accept that they were responsible for the economic mess, no one in the country will think that they have any credibility. The motion refers to

“a recovery for the many, not just a few”.

I know that the Labour party does not like to discriminate because while it was in power, it was not a question of the many or the few at the top, because we all undoubtedly suffered economic hardship. Labour Members do not want to face the fact that living standards were falling faster between 2008 and 2010 than they have since.

The wording of the motion is simply wrong. While it cites a “recovery for the many”, the many are recovering at the moment. More than 1.5 million people have been taken out of tax, while 26 million are paying less tax. People’s mortgage payments are underpinned by low interest rates. Some 1.3 million people are in new jobs, and although shadow Ministers do not like to accept this, in the past year, 71% of those jobs were full time. Unemployment among to 16 to 24-year-olds is falling faster than ever before. I do not think that the families who are experiencing such things would regard the economic recovery as something that does not benefit them.

I assume that the words “few at the top” in the motion refer to the cut in the 50% tax rate. Labour Members may wish to address that, but I suspect that, like with measures on bankers bonuses, they would spend the money raised many times over to fund a number of things. However, let us examine the supposed injustice about which they make so much noise. Does the hon. Member for Nottingham East wish to intervene to tell us for how long there was a 50% tax rate under the previous Government? It was 36 days in the whole 13 years when Labour was in government.

[Ian Austin (Dudley North) (Lab)]

Would the 50p tax rate be so necessary if people such as the hon. Gentleman did not exploit complex offshore tax arrangements to minimise their tax bills? How can he lecture the rest of us in the House about ordinary families who are not able to afford accountants and offshore tax arrangements?

[Stephen Hammond]

I say clearly to the hon. Gentleman that I pay every piece of tax that is due. I have never exploited anything. The Daily Telegraph wrote a story that was a lie, and he ought to be very careful about making such a remark outside the Chamber. I have made clear statements, which are on the internet, that show clearly that I pay every piece of tax that I am supposed to pay. I have never avoided tax and I pay it entirely. He should be very careful about making those accusations. He is using parliamentary privilege to do so, but that is cheap. He should be very careful because that is unfair. It is wrong, and he should apologise.

[Ian Austin]

I would have no hesitation whatsoever in apologising to the hon. Gentleman, but the story in The Daily Telegraph has not been amended or withdrawn—

[Stephen Hammond]

It has.

[Ian Austin]

I have just read it now. If I have said something about the hon. Gentleman’s personal affairs that is not correct, of course I apologise without hesitation.

[Stephen Hammond]

At the end of the article, quite rightly, The Daily Telegraph points out all the facts that my lawyers have made available, and it now recognises those facts. If the hon. Gentleman wants to make an apology, I shall happily accept it.

The motion refers to a

“tough and fair plan to deliver a current budget surplus and falling national debt”,

yet the Opposition’s spending plans involve £166 billion of extra spending. The hon. Member for Nottingham East talks about Labour’s tough and fair plan and its zero-based review of every pound spent, yet the shadow Chancellor’s article in last night’s Evening Standard said that Labour had so far identified £250 million of savings against that £166 billion of unfunded promises. We hear about unfunded spending promises from the hon. Member for Nottingham East, so will he clarify whether the zero-based review has identified any more savings than that £250 million?

[Chris Leslie]

Our zero-based review of all Government Departments is an ongoing process, but I want to ask the hon. Gentleman about the £7 billion promised by the Prime Minister. The hon. Gentleman is a man of integrity—he has been debating this with my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin)—so surely he does not think that the Prime Minister can get away with saying that future growth will pay for that £7 billion. How should that £7 billion be paid for?

[Stephen Hammond]

I am delighted to accept the hon. Gentleman’s word that I am a man of integrity and I hope that the hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin) will also make that clear in the Chamber. It is perfectly reasonable to say that we will implement the policy when the economy allows. That was exactly what the Prime Minister said, as the hon. Member for Nottingham East knows.

The hon. Gentleman also knows that growth in our economy is at 0.7%, in line with data from the past eight or nine quarters, and that the OECD forecasts that the UK will be the fastest-growing economy in the G8 this year and the second fastest next year. He also knows that the deficit has been cut and that our interest rates mean that mortgage rates remain low for many. There is long-term economic progress in an economy that is now 3.4% larger than when we went into recession. Under Labour, borrowing steadily rose throughout the period of economic activity, but this Government are starting to cut the deficit, which is benefiting the many. People have been taken out of tax and business investment is rising. It is clear that our long-term economic plan is delivering for the people of this country, and the only thing that would put that plan in danger would be the election of a Labour Government. The public see through Labour’s plans, as an opinion poll shows that on economic competence, the Conservative party’s rate is, understandably, 26% higher than Labour’s.