Subject: In respect of the matter of The Budget Statement and its implications for Wales
Opposition Member: How can the Secretary of State credibly talk about saving half a million jobs, when the economy is haemorrhaging jobs at the moment? Has he not seen the latest figures for Wales for example
Secretary of State: I think I have and I agree with him. I will come to it in some detail in a few moments time about the jobs, but first of all he has to accept the figure, that I have just put to the committee, that a half a million jobs, would not be here today had it not been for the direct intervention of Government policies.
Opposition Member: Say's who? Say's who?
Secretary of State: Not it is said that the current unemployment figures in Wales are about 75,000. Of course much more than any of us wants. But I was in this House when his party was in Government. Oh no, you can't wipe away from the public memory what has happened all those months ago, not years, because in the two hundred and fifteen months that his party was in Government, two hundred and five months the unemployment figure in Wales was higher than 75,000. And much higher on many occasions.
So for almost all of the time the Conservative Party held office there were more people out of work in my constituency. And in everybody constituency in this room, because of the inaction of the Conservative Party when it was in office and that really is the difference. That's the difference between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party.
That we have got to do something to ensure that we never go back to the days of long term unemployment, when people were shifted onto benefits, left on one side, without any hope for the future and the hopelessness of unemployment, particularly youth unemployment was something that scarred the whole 18 years of the Conservative Party was in office and so I don't want anybody to talk to me about unemployment. After all the years I had to go around my constituency knocking on doors and seeing the effects of a do nothing lassie faire Tory Party, which was in office for nearly two decades.
Official Opposition Spokesperson: It is very sad isn't it that the Secretary of State has to resort to attacking governments that are over 12 years old and hardly fresh in people's memory. But could he answer me this? Has unemployment been higher or lower when Labour has left office?
Secretary of State: Well obviously this is one of these rhetorical questions she knows the answer better than me because it is already written there.
Official Opposition Spokesperson: No it has always been higher
Government Backbencher: You haven't left office yet
Secretary of State: Good point my Honourable friend from Clwyd. We have to compare all the years that Governments are in office including those when the last Conservative Party for nearly twenty years ran this country. And the difference, and the reason why of course these figures are so startlingly different, is because of the way in which Government's philosophy is different.
The philosophy of the Honourable ladies party is to let things happen. Let the recession run its course. Let market forces decide what will happen. And that is not what any responsible Government should do. A Government should be there to ensure that we cushion the effect of this global international recession on the people in our case and the people of the Wales.