Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Jacob Rees-Mogg Excerpts

Thursday 24th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Toby Perkins]

My hon. Friend makes a valid point: it probably is not the new politics, but it is something that political parties should perhaps consider.

Hon. Members should remember that the previous Labour Government were the first Government for many years to start paying off the national debt. The stringent financial rules that the former Prime Minister put in place during his long stint at the Treasury put this country into the position whereby we entered the recession with the second lowest debt to GDP ratio in the G7.

[Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)]

Is it not the case that the only time when the economy was run properly under the previous Government was when they followed Conservative spending plans in their first three years?

[Toby Perkins]

It certainly is not the case. The hon. Gentleman should remember that in 1997 we inherited hospitals that were in a disgraceful state and where people died of things that they could have been treated for, if only they had got to the top of the waiting list. We should also remember that we inherited schools where the roofs leaked every time it rained. Our children were educated in quite disgraceful conditions. That was the legacy of 18 years of the Conservatives, which is why when they lost, they lost so massively that they were not even credible as a party for another 13 years.