Clegg & Breed quiz Brown

8.44.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 11th May 2008

' . . the doubling of the 10p tax rate will "resonate until there is clarity"? When will we get concrete proposals to compensate all those who have been hit?'

Nicholas Clegg (Party Leader; Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat): May I add my own expressions of sympathy and condolence to the family and friends of Trooper Ratu Babakobau? Also, I am sure that I speak on behalf of all Members of the House when I extend our expressions of sympathy and condolence to the family and friends of Ray Michie, the former Member for Argyll and Bute, who sadly passed away just last night.

Does the Prime Minister understand the threat from the right hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Clarke) when he said that the doubling of the 10p tax rate will "resonate until there is clarity"? When will we get concrete proposals to compensate all those who have been hit?

Gordon Brown (Prime Minister; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour): I add to the condolences that the right hon. Gentleman has sent to the family of Ray Michie, who was a very distinguished Member of this House.

The right hon. Gentleman's party is not proposing the restoration of the 10p rate-not at all. Let me also say that the Chancellor has put his letter to the Treasury Committee and outlined the steps that he is taking to deal with the two groups that were missed out-the 60 to 64-year-olds and those people on low incomes who cannot claim the working tax credit-and he will put forward his proposals in due course. I would have thought that the Liberal party would be prepared to wait until he puts his proposals.

David Clark: Perhaps those who have lost the money from their already low weekly pay packets are also not keen to sit back and wait. The truth is there is no easy fix to the 10p problem for the single low earner, to pretend all is under control is misleading to say the least.??Nicholas Clegg (Party Leader; Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat): That is not good enough. This is a matter of principles. Remember those? I think that everybody now knows that when it comes to helping the most needy, the Prime Minister has got no principles and the Tories have got no policies. Will he now provide an absolute guarantee that those who have lost out will be compensated in full, backdated to the beginning of April, and will not have to jump through hoops to claim what is rightfully theirs?

Gordon Brown (Prime Minister; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour): The Chancellor will put his proposals. The Liberal party opposed the new deal, which has helped 2 million people get into work. The Liberal party wanted a local minimum wage, not a national minimum wage, and the Liberal party opposed our child tax credit and our child trust fund. That is not a record that it should be proud of.

. . Colin Breed (Shadow Minister, Treasury; South East Cornwall, Liberal Democrat): Does the Prime Minister understand that unless his Government tackle the scourge of bovine TB soon, there will be little or no livestock industry left in the south-west of England?

Gordon Brown (Prime Minister; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour): The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that we have to deal with the disease, but that must be based on the scientific evidence that is available to us, and that is exactly what the Environment Secretary is looking at.