Harriett Baldwin tackles the Shadow Chancellor over his proposals to reduce VAT at a cost of £12.5 billion a year. Harriett Baldwin: Will the shadow Chancellor confirm that cutting VAT to 17.5% would cost £12.5 billion a year? Would that not simply shift demand from one year to the next? Ed Balls: The Chancellor’s whipping team really must tell people to listen to the answers before they intervene. The Nobel prize winner himself, Chris Pissarides, says in the New Statesman tomorrow that a temporary VAT cut is the right way—[ Interruption. ] I say to Government Members that Nobel prize winners who give good advice to the Chancellor should be listened to. Given that 70 more people are unemployed in the constituency of the hon. Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin) than a year ago, perhaps she should start to listen too. | Hansard