The autumn statement this week revealed the full scale of the government’s economic failure:

•    The prime minister promised to balance the books by 2015. He has broken that promise.

•    The chancellor promised to cut borrowing – but borrowing and debt figures have been revised up this year and for future years.

•    The government promised to grow the economy but yesterday the Office for Budget Responsibility said the economy would contract this year.

I said in the chamber yesterday that the part-time chancellor can try 4G Del Boy economics to hide his failure but he can’t hide the truth. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies this is the worst economic outlook since the 1920s.
This is the consequence of a government that has got all the big decisions wrong.

Meanwhile, I reminded the House on Thursday that every piece of equality legislation since decriminalisation of homosexuality was passed by the last Labour government. And we fully support plans to introduce equal marriage but couples planning their future need certainty from the government, not prevarication. As the government’s legislative timetable isn’t exactly packed I asked the leader of the House at business questions to commit to bring forward legislation in this session.

I also thanked the leader of the House for arranging a debate on the Leveson report earlier this week. Furthermore I congratulated Lord Justice Leveson on his report and his careful consideration of the evidence. I said the status quo is unacceptable – the victims of press intrusion deserve better. I also said that we welcome cross-party talks on how to implement the report. But it became clear this week that there are clear divisions on the report between us and the Tory frontbench. So I urged the leader of the House to make government time available for a vote on the proposals and, if there is a subsequent majority, further time for the legislation that will follow.

Also at business questions I asked the leader of the House to join me in welcoming to the House the new Labour members for Rotherham, Middlesbrough and Croydon North. I told him that I’ve been looking at by-election history. There was a by-election in 2008 in Henley, when the governing party came fifth. At the time the leader of the Liberal Democrats said it showed Labour was ‘finished’.

Well, in the Rotherham by-election the Liberal Democrats managed to scrape into eighth place – behind Labour, UKIP, the BNP, Respect, the Conservatives, the English Democrats and a local vicar!

So I asked the leader of the House: will the deputy prime minister will be making a statement on the outlook for his party after this debacle?

—————————————————————————————

Angela Eagle is MP for Wallasey, shadow leader of the Commons and writes the weekly Business of Parliament column for Progress. She tweets @AngelaEagle