Taxes
Debate between Alec Shelbrooke and Mel Stride(3 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Sir Mel Stride
I am not sure that I fully understood the point, but the hon. Gentleman seems at least to accept that there is a real black hole when it comes to this Government, of at least £6 billion.
Sir Alec Shelbrooke (Wetherby and Easingwold) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend find it extraordinary that when the Government came into office they made a big play of putting the OBR on a pedestal, but because they did not like the news, they now want to dismiss it and water it down?
Sir Mel Stride
Well yes, exactly. The Government will look to any floating branch or whatever to cling on to, to try to look a little better than they truly are.
We have seen a Government who have indulged in spending like it was the 1970s. The result of that has been to push up inflation, which has led to interest rates being higher for longer than they otherwise would have been. It is all very well for Labour Members to trumpet the fact that there have been four interest rate cuts since they came into office. The reality is that if they had not lost control of inflation, there would have been more and they would have come more quickly. The headroom that the Chancellor has against her fiscal targets is wafer-thin. This is the usual Labour way: spending and spending and spending until it runs out of other people’s money.