Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Edward Miliband and Mark Field

Thursday 24th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Edward Miliband]

The doublespeak just gets worse. The Conservatives spend the election attacking the Labour Government for putting up national insurance contributions on employees, then they produce their own Budget which is regressive and unfair, then they realise that that will be pretty damaging for them, so they take credit for a measure that they used to attack. That cannot possibly make sense. The truth is that the Chancellor made a claim in his Budget speech that the Budget was progressive. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, to which the Chancellor referred in his Budget speech, has said clearly that if one looks at the measures announced in the Budget one sees that it is a regressive Budget—and not just regressive, but deeply regressive, because the poorest 10% pay three and a half times more than the richest 10%. However much they may twist and turn with the help of their new friend, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who is auditioning to be a member of the Conservative party, it will not help them. People can smell it. People can see through the doublespeak.

[Mr Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

The right hon. Gentleman has made a statement about national insurance that he knows does not tell anything like half the truth. Our objection always was to the employer’s element—the jobs tax element—of the national insurance rises. It is that element that we have been very glad to put to one side, rather than the employee’s element, to which he gives such undue prominence.

[Edward Miliband]

I have enormous respect for the hon. Gentleman, but he will have to do better than that.