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Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West): Pensioners.
Yvette Cooper: If the hon. Gentleman wants to talk about pensioners, let us talk about the 15,000 pensioners in my constituency who were horrified by the way in which the previous Conservative Government treated them and their future. They were denied their full entitlement to benefits and denied help to get the extra income support to which they were entitled. Some 2,300 people in my constituency were mis-sold personal pensions--
Mr. Swayne: However much the hon. Lady wishes to return to better days and to bring back the past, I remind her that we are discussing this Finance Bill. Does she agree that pensioners, those approaching pensionable age and even those some years away from pensionable age who are making savings decisions, require, more than anything else, stability in their assumptions? This Budget has robbed them of any stability. Does she accept that the Budget will go down in history as one that attacks the saver?
Yvette Cooper: I am not trying to look backwards; I am trying to look forwards. The hon. Gentleman makes my point--pensioners need stability. They need to know that their pension funds will be worth something when they retire. What matters to them is the future performance of the pension funds. That performance depends on the state of the economy in which those pension funds are invested. That performance depends most of all on whether the companies in which they invest continue to grow and to prosper, rather than being slammed into a recession with the consequent destruction of capacity, of jobs and of those companies' value. The previous Government pushed companies and pension funds into such a recession.
The hon. Member for New Forest, West (Mr. Swayne) is absolutely right: stability is what matters--for people of my generation, considering our future. What most jeopardises our security and future stability is the fear that we may lose our jobs because the economy again tumbles into recession--which has been caused by the boom-bust, irresponsible policies pursued by the previous Government. Ministers in the previous Government simply shrugged their shoulders and said, "The economy has nothing to do with us; it can carry on rolling up and down, up and down."
Mr. Nicholas Winterton:
We have the strongest economy in Europe.
Yvette Cooper:
The previous Government slammed our economy into a deep and damaging recession,
We now have a chance to do something about that cycle and to try to prevent it from happening again--to make a difference for the sake of our future, of our children and of our grandchildren.
Mr. Cranston:
Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
I call Mr. Boswell.
Mr. Boswell:
First, I congratulate the hon. Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Clarke) on his maiden speech.
Mr. Livingstone:
On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. It is clear that my hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) gave way to a colleague behind her--not to this.
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
It was not clear to whom the hon. Lady gave way. I thought that she had finished her speech. I call Mr. Cranston.
Mr. Cranston:
Does my hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract and Castleford agree that, in Committee, we heard nothing about issues of growth or, specifically, of social justice? We focused on the needs of only a few people who would be affected by withdrawal of relief on private medical insurance--a measure that will affect no more than 550,000 people.
Yvette Cooper:
I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. The Budget will be remembered for the contribution that it makes to jobs for the long-term unemployed. We are raising money and enabling people to get the jobs and the future that they need.
Future pensioners will depend most on stability, on jobs and on having the money to contribute to their own pensions--which they will not have if they are without a job and on the dole. Future and current pensioners care most about their children and their grandchildren and about jobs for them. Our Budget will get 250,000 young people off benefit and into work, making a huge difference to the 900 under-25s in my constituency who have no job and very little hope for the future. They certainly deserve better than they received from the previous Conservative Government.
The Budget has managed to provide extra resources for the health service, for education and for rebuilding our schools.
Mr. Ben Chapman (Wirral, South):
My hon. Friend is talking about the welfare-to-work programme and how it will affect 250,000 young people. In my constituency, as many as 2,000 young people are striving to get work, and as many as one in four are out of employment. Many of our young people have no aspirations, no hope and no
Yvette Cooper:
I thank my hon. Friend--[Interruption.] It is such a shame that Conservative Members want to cluck, crow and jeer when the subject under discussion is the future of the young unemployed and their opportunity to thrive and prosper--an opportunity not given to them by the previous Government but which they are being given by this Government, who believe in a future for the people of Britain.
Mr. Boswell:
The hon. Member for Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) has clearly cast herself in the role of winding up the debate. No Government Front Bencher was prepared to do it, but the hon. Lady did not make too bad a job of it.
I attempted to congratulate my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Clarke), on a most elegant speech full of wit and in which he paid a gracious tribute to Michael Morris.
I have very little time to say anything else about the Bill because of the operation of the guillotine. It is a Bill that should never have been. There might be some credibility in the proposal for the windfall tax, but there is no mandate for or credibility in the other 15--
It being Ten o'clock, Mr. Deputy Speaker put the Question already proposed from the Chair, pursuant to Order [14 July] and Resolution [yesterday].
Question put, That the Bill be now read the Third time:--
9.59 pm
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