Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)

The sense of positivity that the Prime Minister brought to the House in the last two days, particularly in respect of hope and growth and tax, as the Minister said, is in marked contrast to the previous regime, and it is genuinely welcome. Unfortunately, however, growth is now predicted to be negligible for this quarter and the next, and the gilts market has responded by raising our interest rates to a record higher than the aforementioned Liz Truss Budget. Can I therefore pick up the point the Minister made in reply to my noble friend Lord Redwood in respect of Budget measures? I take the point about her not wanting to rule things out. In fact, the Labour Party manifesto, which the Prime Minister has agreed to follow, specifically ruled out increases to income tax, increases in VAT and increases in corporation tax. Leaving aside the sleight of hand with national insurance, it would be possible to rule out wealth taxes and increases to capital gains tax. I ask this because I can tell the Minister that the market is frozen, and people are not making decisions. We might end up with the same mess that we had last time. I urge her Government to think carefully about whether it is possible to indicate or to tell the market that certain tax rises will be ruled out.