Welfare Reform Bill

Debate between Lord Blencathra and Baroness Hollis of Heigham

Wednesday 11th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hollis of Heigham]

My Lords, almost everything passed in this House has financial implications. The House of Commons is entitled to and regularly will dismiss every amendment passed in this House under financial privilege. There is nothing new in that. We do indeed then go into ping-pong because this House will offer an alternative amendment for the House of Commons to consider. Should we reach that situation, some of the fallback amendments mentioned by the noble Baroness could then be considered.

[Lord Blencathra]

My Lords, it is with some trepidation that I intervene briefly in this debate in view of the learned comments that one has heard from both sides. I seldom contribute to debates of this nature because it is outside my areas of expertise, but I am prompted to do so as the result of a speech made yesterday. I heard the leader of the Opposition say that,

“in these times, with less money, spending more on one thing means finding the money from somewhere else”.

He went on to say that:

“When someone wins, someone else loses”.

I have looked briefly at the amendments before your Lordships’ House today and I had not intended to say anything on them because I knew that they had considerable spending implications, but I am tempted to speak out because of what the leader of the Opposition said yesterday.

The noble Lord, Lord Patel, has made a powerful and compelling speech, and it would be easy for me and no doubt for other noble Lords to vote for his amendment and feel morally good. But the sting lay at the tail end of his remarks when he said, I think, “Of course, this could have some enormous cost implications”, and then he came up with not what I would say is a formula but a suggestion, which I must admit I did not quite understand, about how one could try to save on some of those considerable costs. However, I am informed that his amendment as it stands has serious cost implications. I believe that it would cost up to £200 million next year, maybe £400 million the year after and again the year after that. I hope that my noble friend the Minister has the correct figures, but I believe that it will be around £1 billion of expenditure over the next three years. The House needs to know exactly what those figures are.

Perhaps I may turn to the Opposition and say this. If the Opposition are tempted to support this amendment —I hope that I am not being too political here—I hope, in view of what the leader of the Opposition said yesterday, that they will spell out where the money is to come from. At this stage I am not concerned about whether the Commons will reject the amendment or whether there will be ping-pong, although that is a valid debate to have in due course, but it is incumbent on the Opposition or on those who are arguing for this amendment to say where the £1 billion, if indeed it is £1 billion, is to come from. Is to come from higher taxation or from a cut in public spending somewhere else? Is it to come from increased government borrowing? Someone somewhere will have to pay for this.