Budget Resolutions

Debate between Damian Collins and Jerome Mayhew

Thursday 7th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jerome Mayhew (Broadland) (Con)]

They wanted more.

[Damian Collins]

My hon. Friend is quite right: if anything, Labour wanted the lockdown to carry on longer, meaning that the debts would have been even higher. Had the Conservative party not put the public finances back in order, we would have started that pandemic with much higher levels of debt than we did. The necessary decisions were made to put the economy right.

The borrowing has gone on because of the need to pay for covid. It has been complicated by a war in Ukraine —again, I have not heard any Labour Members say that we should not have supported the Ukrainian people.