Proposed Public Expenditure Cuts Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Proposed Public Expenditure Cuts

Claire Perry Excerpts
Monday 13th September 2010

(13 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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George Osborne Portrait Mr Osborne
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I can do no better than repeat what the IFS said in the report to which the hon. Lady has referred. It said that in 2012,

“Considering all tax and benefit reforms… the richest tenth of households lose the most in both cash and percentage terms.”

Claire Perry Portrait Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)
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Does the Chancellor agree that there is nothing progressive about leaving 5 million people on out-of-work benefits—a system that condemns single women in particular to a lifetime of poverty—and that there is nothing progressive about leaving the Labour party’s debts to the next generation to repay?

George Osborne Portrait Mr Osborne
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I can go better, and quote Lord Myners, who said:

“There is nothing progressive about a Government who consistently spend more than they can raise in taxation, and…nothing progressive that endows generations to come with the liabilities incurred by the current generation.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 8 June 2010; Vol. 719, c. 625.]