Philip Hammond MP News

Labour's attacks on middle Britain
January 2010

Phillip Hammond, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has responded to Gordon Brown's new claim to represent aspirational middle classes.

‘One minute Gordon Brown's a class warrior, the next he is a friend of middle Britain, Hammond said. The idea that a man who has spent his whole career at war with the middle classes can be their champion is laughable’.

Hammond highlighted how Gordon Brown has taxed Middle Britain:

• He’s repeatedly hiked national insurance, hitting middle Britain again and again.
• He imposed a £100 billion pensions stealth tax.
• He hit first time buyers with a £1,500 rise in stamp duty.
• He imposed 111 tax rises.

‘Middle Britain won't forget that it was Gordon Brown who destroyed their pensions, increased their taxes and crippled social mobility’, he added, as he cited a number of examples of how Middle Britain has suffered under Labour:

• Fewer people getting on to the housing ladder.
• Fewer first time buyers.
• Declining social mobility.
• Children from wealthy backgrounds are four times more likely to go to university.
• Parents unable to work because childcare costs are too high.
• Lack of school choice.
• High levels of anti-social behaviour.
• High levels of violent crime.
• Sharp decline in pensions.
• Record youth unemployment.
• Harder to start a business.

Editor’s Note: Gordon Brown lies again! Every thing he says is words without meaning, just take a look at what Google found on Brown Lies Results - of about 1,920,000 for brown lies

Make IT Better!

‘We have built the website to share with you a leaked copy of Labour’s report on public sector IT, which was scheduled to be published in the days ahead. The Government hopes that this report will prove that they can make efficiency savings to deal with the spiraling debt crisis, and can finally get to grips with the systemic failures in public sector IT procurement over the past decade.

As you will see, the report achieves none of these things.

Since 1997, Labour ministers have spent approximately £100 billion on IT projects, more than any other European country. A recent study concluded that 70% of recent IT projects have failed – meaning tens of billions of pounds wasted on systems ranging from the calamitous £20 billion NHS supercomputer to the poorly managed Home Office probation service IT system.

We think there’s a better way. Not only is it possible to develop a more ambitious, cost-effective and transformative vision for government IT, but we believe that it’s also possible to pursue a completely different approach to making policy. Rather than the traditional closed approach to policy making that this report typifies, we want to throw open the process and allow people to contribute their ideas on how policy should be designed. In the post-bureaucratic age, we believe that crowd sourcing and collaborative design can help us to make better policies – and we think this approach should begin now.’

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About Philip Hammond MP

Member of Parliament for Runnymede & Weybridge
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Philip was born in 1955 in Essex. He was married in 1991 and he and his wife, Susan, have two daughters and a son: Amy, Sophie and William.

He was educated at the Shenfield School, Brentwood, Essex, and won an Open Scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he gained a 1st Class Honours degree in PPE in 1977. His personal interests include reading, cinema, and hill-walking in Scotland.

As well as a wide-ranging business career over twenty years, including director-level roles in medical equipment manufacturing, property and oil & gas companies in the UK and in Europe, Philip's past experience includes several assignments for the World Bank in Latin America and Africa.

Philip's Experience

Philip has been a Member of Parliament representing Runnymede and Weybridge since 1997. He previously fought a parliamentary by-election in Newham North-East in 1994. Philip was Secretary of the Conservative Party Health Committee and has also served as a member of the Select Committee for Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Trade & Industry Select Committee.

In June 1998, Philip was appointed to the Opposition Front Bench as Shadow Minister for Health. In September 2001, he was appointed Shadow Trade & Industry Minister with the additional role of Shadow Minister for Small Business.

From 2002 to 2005, he was Shadow Minister for Local Government. In this role Philip was responsible for developing Conservative Party policy on local government finance (including council tax), the Fire and Rescue Service and traveller management.

In May 2005, he became the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. From December 2005 to June 2007, Philip served as the Shadow Secretary of State for Work & Pensions. In June 2007, he was appointed Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

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