Baroness Ludford (LD)

My Lords, I thank the Minister for the Statement. The Government want to reintroduce informed risk-taking into our financial services system to deliver prosperity for working people. As my noble friend Lady Kramer pointed out, the last time we had risk-taking in the financial services system in a context of global competitive deregulation, in 2008, it created a crisis that meant the taxes of working people bailed out the bankers. How confident are the Government that we are not going down that path again? In that context, why is the Chancellor disagreeing with the Governor of the Bank of England, who said that “we can’t compromise on … financial stability” and, notably, failed to endorse the route the Chancellor is taking? On what the Minister called “reforming the ISA system”, I certainly agree with the comments that have been made about the need for more financial education, and it may be that ISA reforms can be discussed. But I question the way in which the Chancellor went about this. She created a scare story about how cash ISAs were going to be abolished. That scare story has run for several months, which will surely discourage the normal punter who is not confident in retail investment from saving at all. Should the Chancellor not sack the spad or speech-writer who is encouraging her to shoot from the hip, which she seems to have a bit of a tendency to do, and take the better route of launching a reasonable debate, instead of letting these issues float and scare people?