Giles was quickly back on his feet, ready to deliver the knockout blow. ‘It could start by putting up taxes for the highest earners, who can well afford to pay a little more to assist those less fortunate than themselves.’ He sat down to even louder cheers, while Emma waited patiently at the despatch box.
‘I’m glad the noble lord admitted that would be a start,’ she said, picking up a red file that a Treasury official had handed her that morning, ‘because a start is all it would be. If he is asking this House to believe that the Labour Party could cover a fourteen per cent pay rise for nurses simply by raising taxes for those earning forty thousand pounds a year or more, let me tell him this, he would require a tax hike to ninety-three per cent year on year. And I confess,’ she added, borrowing her brother’s brand of sarcasm, ‘I hadn’t realized that a tax rate of ninety-three per cent was Labour Party policy, because I didn’t spot it in their manifesto, which I read word for word.’
Emma could hear the laughter coming from behind her, even if she couldn’t see her colleagues jabbing their fingers at her brother and repeating, ‘Ninety-three per cent, ninety-three per cent.’
Like Giles, she waited for silence before adding, ‘Perhaps the noble lord would tell the House what other ideas he has for covering the extra cost?’
Giles remained seated.
‘Might I be allowed to suggest one or two ways of raising the necessary funds that would help him to reach his target of fourteen per cent?’
Emma had recaptured the attention of the House. She turned a page of the Treasury memo inside the red file. ‘For a start, I could cancel the three new hospitals planned for Strathclyde, Newcastle and Coventry. That would solve the problem. Mind you, I’d need to close another three hospitals next year. But I am not willing to make that sacrifice, so perhaps I should look at some other departments’ budgets and see what my colleagues have to offer.’
She turned another page.
‘We could cut back on our plans for new universities, or withdraw the three per cent increase in the old age pension. That would solve the problem. Or we could cut back on our armed forces by mothballing the odd regiment. No, no, we couldn’t do that,’ she said scornfully, ‘not after the noble lord spoke so passionately against any cutbacks in the armed forces budget only a month ago.’
Giles sank further into his seat.
‘And remembering the noble lord’s distinguished record in another place, as a Foreign Office minister, perhaps we could close half a dozen of our embassies. That should do the trick. We could even leave him to decide which ones. Washington? Paris? Moscow perhaps? Beijing? Tokyo? I’m bound to ask, is this another Labour Party policy they forgot to mention in their manifesto?’
Suddenly the government benches were alight with laughter and cheering.
‘No, my Lord Speaker,’ continued Emma once the house had fallen silent again, ‘the truth is, words are cheap, but action comes more expensive, and it’s the duty of a responsible government to consider priorities and make sure it balances the books. That undertaking was in the Tory manifesto, and I make no apology for it.’
Emma was aware that she only had a couple of minutes left, and the cheering of her delighted colleagues was eating away at her time.
‘I must therefore tell the House that I consider education, pensions, defence and our role in world affairs every bit as important as my own department. But let me assure your lordships, when it comes to my own department, I fought the Treasury tooth and nail to keep those three new hospitals in the budget.’ She paused, raised her voice and said, ‘This morning the Chancellor of the Exchequer agreed that the nurses will be awarded a six per cent pay rise.’
The benches behind her erupted in prolonged cheers.