Capital Gains Tax (Rates)

Tom Harris Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Tom Harris (Glasgow South) (Lab)]

I hope that the hon. Lady will steer away from misleading the House into believing that the Labour Government did not wish to reduce the national deficit, because she must know that they proposed to halve it over a period of four years. Can she tell us with what part of that package she has so much difficulty?

[Mary Macleod]

The hon. Gentleman clearly has a very short memory of what the present Opposition did to the country. What we, as the Government, need to do now is address the present situation and, as we have done in the emergency Budget, come up with measures to turn it around.

Far from being reckless, as was suggested yesterday by the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman), this Budget has shown that the Government are prepared to take on their responsibilities and make the tough decisions required. That is something that the previous Government neglected to do. We are putting the country first, and doing the right thing. What would be reckless would be to continue to allow debt interest payments to increase as they have been doing. The cuts that are coming are actually Labour cuts. We have inherited a mess far worse than we were told we would inherit before the election, and we are paying the bills for the last Government’s irresponsible actions. That is their legacy to Britain. If we carry on as we are, we may be paying about £70 billion in interest on our debt in five years’ time.