The Economy

Part of Business of the House – in the House of Commons at 12:20 pm on 4 June 2015.

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Photo of Chris Leslie Chris Leslie Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 12:20, 4 June 2015

The civil service used to have a phrase for things like this. It was a brave decision of the right hon. Gentleman to defend his Government’s record on infrastructure. Many projects that were started under the previous Government have still not been completed. Would it not be better if we rose above party political picking out of which infrastructure project should proceed and we tried to have a more mature debate about how we plan infrastructure in this country?

The Chancellor knows that Sir John Armitt’s report on infrastructure was widely received across the business community and that all sorts of parties that wanted to find an independent approach to infrastructure planning. I still believe that that would be a better, more grown up way to plan for infrastructure.