Madam Deputy Speaker: Toby Perkins.

Toby Perkins: Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to support the motion and I am glad to hear that it seems to be enjoying a lot of support and I hope we will see those OBR forecasts coming out immediately after the motion is carried.

I have to say that I have always opposed Tory governments. I have long been of the view that a bad Labour government is better than a good Tory one. I know what the Tories are about, and I never expected that they would do anything other than make life more difficult for the most vulnerable. In fact, if that wasn’t the way that the Tory Party operated, we would never have had a need to invent the Labour Party in the first place, but I have to say that whilst I have opposed many Conservative governments, never before have I seen one so inept yet so arrogant as the one that we have in front of us. So, damaging, yet so casual about the impacts that they have on people’s lives, and we must remember when the revisionism comes, as it undoubtably will in the weeks and months to come, that this didn’t fall out of a clear blue sky, there was a clear mandate for this. The Prime Minister was very clear during that leadership contest what she was going to do, and it was Tory MPs who put her into the final two.

Now, we are hearing now that they are all say that we must never let the members choose the Leader again, but they chose to put her in the final two, knowing full well what the policies were that she was going to support. So, as I say, we have this huge revisionism going on so that Tory MPs, when it comes to the next generation will be able to turn and say well this was just a rogue Chancellor, a long ago deposed Prime Minister, try and forget about that, we changed after that but there was a mandate that she won from her party to pursue these policies and I recall, at the time of the Mini Budget Statement, and I confess, there were some voices of disquiet, but I recall the support heard from many members opposite, and it was when I heard how happy the Mini Budget had made the Hon. Member for Wokingham that I knew how bad it was going to be for the British people. I remember the Hon. Member for Don Valley, who was in his place a few moments ago claiming the whole of Doncaster would be supporting this budget.

Now, I don’t hear him saying that today but there were hawks, across the right-wing press and as they circle on the PM let’s not forget they were the biggest cheerleaders for this budget. The Daily Mail proclaiming the day after the budget, “At last a true Tory budget”, the Daily Express, equally triumphant “Big tax cuts to herald the new era”.

…I will do.

Janet Darby MP: Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Would my Hon friend agree with me that the then Chancellor was carrying out what the Prime Minister had said that she would do and actually, in making sure that he lost his job or should be her that is taking responsibility and indeed resigning?

Toby Perkins: Well, absolutely, I couldn’t agree more. He’s the first politician in history to have to resign for doing what he said he was going to do and indeed, doing precisely what the Prime Minister said she was going to do and it was born of the recklessness of having pursued so much, so confidently, with so little evidence under the previous Prime Minister before that so make no mistake Madam Deputy Speaker, I will spend every day between now and the next general election making sure the people of Chesterfield know that the higher interest rates, the tax rises, the cuts to our threadbare public services and even shamefully, the prospect of disabled people on benefits and impoverished pensioners could see further cuts to their real terms income are all as a result of this arrogant recklessness. This did not need to happen, and the damage is done.

Yes, there are global issues, but the Central Bank did not have to bail out pension funds in America or Germany. Of course, we welcome the fact that they have undone some of these measures, and it’s bizarre to see the Chancellor on Monday saying I am pleased that Labour are supporting my plans, they were our plans a few weeks ago and now they, sort of see, as some kind of success the fact that they have put the fire out, or attempted to put the fire out that they have originally lit but of course the damage has been done.

Of course, the logical call, made by my Rt Hon. Friend from Leeds West for a windfall tax continues to be rejected. What is the objection that this government has to asking the energy generators to contribute some of those vast excess profits to help with funding the cost of helping people stay warm this winter and allowing businesses to keep their door open? I will do.

Paul Barker MP: Does the Hon. Member agree with me that even when the CEO of Shell has come out and advocated for a windfall tax we truly have gone through the looking glass and it’s time for the government benches opposite to do the right thing?

Toby Perkins: Well, it absolutely is, and I suspect ultimately, they will because I am a great student of history. I can remember right back to January of this year when the Labour Party were calling for a windfall tax and I remember the Prime Minister standing there mocking us and say “Labour always want to raise taxes” and the Chancellor was saying the same thing but of course, a few months later, reluctantly, they had to announce precisely that. The Prime Minister actually, the Prime Minister at the time, the Hon Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip used to stand there criticising the policy of ours that he then adopted. That’s how bizarre this government’s behaviour has been.

Now of course we go through the same damaging charade again. Of course, ultimately, this government will adopt Labour’s policy of a windfall tax but in the meantime, they will cost our country and our people dear. The, just a week ago we had the Prime Minister boasting that she’d guaranteed people’s energy bills for the next two years, why are Labour only guaranteeing it for 6 months, we are guaranteeing it for 2 years and then the Chancellor comes back on Monday and says “Alright, 6 months” and this is the way that this government is running our economy, you would not run a whelk stall like that.

The Government policies change at such a bewildering rate and this one of the things they don’t seem to understand. It’s not just that the policies are wrong but the clear demonstration that they haven’t got a clue what they’re doing that is unsettling the markets so much.

In Chesterfield, 3352 households will face a hike in their mortgage payments next year. It is quite unbelievable. My Hon. friend from Liverpool Wavertree said that this is 2011 all over again. Not at all. In 2011 we were coming on the back of 13 years of Labour investment in our public services, there was a chance our health services, our schools, our Sure Start could withstand the cuts that were being put there. Not now, not now. Our public services cannot tolerate the sort of cuts that the Chancellor was warning us might be coming our way.

The idea that this government can restore confidence in our nation’s finances, by having two more years of the ineptitude that got us here in the last 12 years would be laughable if it was not so serious. There is no mandate for the approach that they are now pursuing and if the Tories think that they can quietly euthanise the career of the latest Prime Minister and have another go they are further removed from reality than even I believe that they are.

We need a government truly committed to growth. To a green recovery and to rebuilding our public services. We need a government whose polices last beyond the ink drying on the growth document they’ve just printed. We need a government whose plans are robust and whose Leader is strong, and we need a government willing to lead in the national interest and not just the narrow interests of their party and that Madam Deputy Speaker means we need a Labour Government, led by my Rt Hon. friend from Holborn and St. Pancras and we need that general election now!