42. Mr. H. Wilsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the progress achieved in realising the cuts of £100 million in Government expenditure foreshadowed by his predecessor in April last.
§ Mr. PowellI would refer the right hon. Gentleman to the reply which my right hon. Friend gave to the hon. Member for Govan (Mr. Rankin) on 29th January.
Mr. WilsonIs not the simple fact that the whole operation to save £100 million of Government expenditure broke down, as we from the start told the House it would? Has it not now been replaced by an increase in Government expenditure of more than £100 million?
§ Mr. PowellNo; in fact, savings of over £93 million were attained. Had they not been attained, the supplementary requirements would have been so much higher.
Mr. WilsonTo take only one example, since the intended War Office savings of very considerable sums were never achieved at all—as the Secretary of State for War explained to us last week—because deliveries came along faster than he expected, are we to assume that any of the other claimed savings are any more real?
§ Mr. PowellNo, Sir—[Laughter.]—the vast majority of these savings, with the exception of £5 million in connection with the Suez operation, to which my right hon. Friend referred earlier, have actually been to our credit in the present financial year.
§ Mr. JayCan the Financial Secretary put the matter a little more simply and tell us how much more the Government have so far spent in this financial year than in the last?
§ Mr. PowellIf the right hon. Gentleman will look at the Supplementary 1073 Estimates he will see not only an answer to his question but also the effect of the savings to which I have referred.
Mr. WilsonInstead of the hon. Member trying to cook up some more figures, will he inform my right hon. Friend that the increase this year over last year so far—in ten months—is £285 million?
§ Mr. SpeakerWe are to debate this question later.