Former MP for Bristol West
The Red Book assumed privatisation proceeds of £1½ billion in 1998–99, reflecting the Government's continuing commitment to privatisation. Privatisation reduces borrowing and secures long-term benefits for UK taxpayers and consumers.
My hon. Friend is right; the absence of the predicted income from privatisation proceeds seems to have been missed by the right hon. Member for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown), who says that he will stick to our plans. Unless the right hon. Gentleman has done yet another U-turn on the matter, the Opposition are £1½ billion short on this, which contributes to the £12 billion gap that they...
No, it does not show any such thing. If we cast our minds back, on each of those occasions the Labour party either said that such businesses could not be privatised or would not be sold—or it tried to talk the market down. The hon. Gentleman helpfully makes another point, which is that the Labour party's proposed so-called windfall tax is based on the idea that there was a windfall—some...
The Labour party justified that policy on the basis that it thought that some of the executives in those firms were too highly paid, but the proposal makes no difference to executive pay. It is a random tax on a selection of successful businesses, such as British Telecom, which has delivered a 40 per cent. cut in real terms in its prices to the consumer. It shows Labour's real underlying...
The figures in the Red Book do not include any potential receipts from the Post Office. They include the privatisation of National Air Traffic Services, which has been announced, and there are plenty of other candidates in line that will continue to make the privatisation receipts flow. This is a major gap in Labour's plans to which it has not yet found any answer.
My hon. Friend is quite right: the Red Book does not include any assumptions about London Underground.
The PFI is delivering better value to the taxpayer, better services to the public sector and new business opportunities for the private sector. The PFI entails real transfer of risk and responsibility to the private sector, and on that basis has been shown to improve value for money. That is why it was endorsed by the IMF as a welcome innovation that has the potential to increase the...
Yes. There is fundamental confusion about that in the Labour party. Its document "Renewing the NHS" states: We strongly disapprove of the Government's efforts to dragoon hospitals and health authorities into tying themselves up in long-term private finance contracts.
