Patrick Hurley

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz, and I thank the hon. Member for Isle of Wight East (Joe Robertson) for securing this debate. Prior to the election, the Labour party made a promise to the British people not to put up taxes on working people and I am proud that they have not put up taxes on working people. However, everybody in this country has known for years that the state was failing on its own terms. Prior to the election, I spent a year as my party’s candidate and I canvassed every single street in my Southport constituency; I know pretty much every dodgy garden gate and letterbox in the whole town. The one complaint I heard over and over and over again was that nothing works properly in this country any more. The reason why nothing works properly in this country any more is the economic legacy of the Conservative party. GP appointments, train journeys, street lights, social care—none of it works. We had to do something to put this country’s economic policy on an even keel, and this is what we had to do. [Interruption.] I will take no lectures from anybody over there who opposes it.