Southend West Conservative MP David Amess yesterday demanded information on the Government’s next spending review.
Mr Amess asked during a Parliamentary debate what steps the Treasury was taking to prepare for the next spending review.
Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary at the Treasury, replied:
“As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has said, departmental budgets are set until April 2011.
“We are less than half way through the current spending review and current economic uncertainty makes it unrealistic to set departmental budgets now, all the way through to 2014.
“My right hon. Friend will have more to say about that in the pre-Budget report and the Budget.â€
Mr Amess, however, was unsatisfied with this response. He pressed the issue, saying:
“I listened to what the Minister said, but I do not think it will or can wash with the House.
“The British economy is obviously in a terrible state and the only people who do not realise it are the Government.
“The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that departmental spending will fall between 2011 and 2014. Will the Minister now admit that?â€
Mr Timms replied:
“As I have said to the House, we will set out departmental budgets at the next spending review.
“There is a good deal of uncertainty, including about the kind of things that the IFS is forecasting at the moment, and it would be rash to set out detailed projections and commitments at this stage.
“That is why my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will come back to it later this year or in the Budget next year.â€
Chichester Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie suggested that the Government’s reluctance to carry out a spending review was because “the Government know that they have absolutely no chance at a general election if they had to reveal the scale of cuts required.â€
Mr Timms refuted this, and began explaining his reasons again, but was cut off by new speaker John Bercow.
