Equitable Life (Payments) Bill
Nigel Evans Excerpts(14 years, 2 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I thank the hon. Member for taking much less time than he could have done. Everybody can see how many Members are standing and everybody can do the maths. We want to get as many contributions in as possible, so I ask hon. Members to show great discipline.
Mr Deputy Speaker
Order. I thank Members for getting their messages across while showing time discipline.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. The winding-up speeches will begin at 9.30. I ask the two remaining speakers to divide the remaining time between them.
Finance Bill
Nigel Evans Excerpts(14 years, 4 months ago)
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Owen Smith
On that specific point of corporations looking to the future and thinking about how to plan their business, can the hon. Gentleman tell me of any industrial sector or any big British company that has responded to the austerity budget and said that they now anticipate significant growth and taking on new people? I have not seen any such report.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. Before the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock) resumes his speech, let me say that we allow some latitude on Third Reading of the Finance Bill, but that it would be useful if Members made reference to the Bill from time to time.
Matthew Hancock
The reductions in corporation tax that are outlined in this Bill have been welcomed by the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Institute of Directors and the Federation of Small Businesses. Indeed, a multitude of business organisations have welcomed it. Even the Engineering Employers Federation said that this was a path in the right direction. That shows the support from business organisations.
Matthew Hancock
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am new to the House. Could you possibly advise me whether it is appropriate for a Member to make an entire speech having stated in advance that he or she will take no interventions whatever?
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
It is very much up to hon. Members whether to take any interventions or a number of interventions, but what I have heard from the hon. Lady tells me that she is going to take no interventions during her speech.
Jacob Rees-Mogg
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The hon. Lady said that she was not taking any interventions because the debate had to finish in an hour. The Order Paper, however, says the debate may continue until any hour. Can you explain to a new Member which is correct, Mr Deputy Speaker?
Mr Deputy Speaker
Funnily enough, I was waiting for that point of order to be made earlier. The Order Paper is always correct, and this debate could indeed go on until any time.
Mary Creagh
In that case, Mr Deputy Speaker, I am happy to take all interventions, even though I have spent three minutes clarifying those points.
Mr Deputy Speaker
The relevance is the subject of VAT, which is addressed in the Bill, but I would reiterate the guidance given before I took the Chair, which is that people must, please, keep to the contents of the Bill and show some restraint, as many Members wish to speak.
Mary Creagh
We have had a debate on the higher-rated goods, which will be permanently more expensive following the votes that we will have this evening, but I also want to talk about the cuts to Labour’s child trust fund.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. Before I call the next speaker, in response to the point of order from Mr Rees-Mogg I stated that the Order Paper, as ever, was correct and that the debate could carry on for some time. However, hon. Members will also note if they look at the Order Paper that there is other business this evening. Another debate is to follow this one and it can last three hours, so I ask for some self-restraint for the duration of this debate.
Mr Umunna
Of course, I agree with my hon. Friend. In addition, behind closed doors, some people in the Treasury share the pessimism about the state of our economy, with a leaked Treasury document showing an expected unemployment increase of 1.3 million over the next five years owing to the coalition Government’s economic policies. As well as the colossal human cost of those job losses, that will exacerbate the deficit by significantly increasing unemployment benefit payments, as I mentioned before, and cutting income tax and national insurance receipts significantly, but let me go on to the next point, as I wish to make some progress.
According to the Chief Secretary, the Bill will help to reduce the deficit and take action to eliminate the structural deficit, which is, of course, an obsession of the Government. We have already seen that their determination to do that could lead to the biggest cuts in Government spending that we have seen for many decades, but let us linger a little on the claim that the Bill is “responsible”. I have already explained how the coalition has sought to conflate public finances before the financial crash with the measures taken to mitigate the crash’s impact on hard-working ordinary people, but it is crucial that we establish what is “responsible” and what is not. The facts tell a very different story from that told by the coalition Government.
When Labour came to power, as the shadow Chief Secretary has said, public sector net debt was 42.5% of GDP. On the eve of the financial crisis, it was 36.5%, and interest payments had fallen from 3% to 1.6% of national income. A recent report by the IFS found that,
“the UK public finances were in better shape when the financial crisis began than they were when Labour came to power.”
By contrast, Germany’s indebtedness amounted to 65% of national income in 2007. In France, the figure was 63.8%; in Italy, 103.5%; and Japan ran consistent deficits, with the result that it owed 167.6% of national income by 2007. In short, the UK Government’s borrowing at that time was not of the order suggested by the Conservative party and certainly did not by any stretch of the imagination cause the economic crisis that followed.
That crisis, of course, caused the world economy to contract for the first time since the second world war. As I said, that called for decisive fiscal expansion—for billions to be injected into failing banks and into a flagging economy. How lucky we were that the then Government intervened. I for one refuse to apologise to Government Members for the bold action that the Labour party took to keep people in work, to ensure that they could still take money out of the ATM cash machines in the wall and to prevent the recession from mushrooming into a catastrophic depression.
Let it be said loud and clear that responsibility was what the previous Government did, but irresponsibility is pinning the blame for the size of the public sector debt on the previous Government and using that as a reason to hack off chunks of the public sector through spending cuts. Will Hutton, whom the Government have just appointed to head up their commission on high pay in the public sector, hit the nail on the head when he wrote in October that it was not the Labour Government
“that got us into this mess…What got us into this mess above all was the 30-year rise of Big Finance”.
However, the same people who insist that the previous Government got us into this mess propose in the Bill a corporation tax cut that will gift millions to big finance—that is what I call irresponsible.
Let me finish by examining the claim around which much of the Budget debate has revolved: that this was an “unavoidable” Budget, thus making the Finance Bill unavoidable, too. The two parties in government have made a set of choices that, I dare to venture, predate the economic crisis by a number of years. The game plan on which the Budget was based was disclosed long ago in the 2005 Conservative manifesto, the author of which happens to be the new occupant of No. 10 Downing street. The Conservatives pledged in their manifesto to slash 250,000 public sector jobs and to abolish 168 public bodies. Back then, Howard Flight, the party’s deputy chairman, was secretly recorded saying that the cuts publicly advocated by his party were a fraction of those planned. He said that the actual plans had been recalibrated into something that would be “politically acceptable” and that his party
“had to win an election first”,
but that afterwards
“you can actually get on with what needs to be done.”
We therefore cannot say that we were not warned, although people’s surprise that the Conservatives have been joined in their venture by the Liberal Democrats is wholly understandable.
Given all the shifting political sands and hidden agendas, the game of choices necessitates an eagle eye, because what stands out from the Bill and the Government’s general economic policies is not just the unfair VAT rise and the corporation tax gift to the City, as well as the disingenuous rhetoric with which they are presented, but what is absent from the Budget and the Finance Bill. Where, for example, is the plan to make the financial services sector bear its fair share of the burden? The Wall Street Journal said that the City should
“count itself lucky with the coalition government's emergency budget”.
Of course, the Government will introduce a bank levy that is forecast to raise about £2 billion, but that is a pin-prick when one considers the vast profits made in the sector. Even the IMF has proposed that the levy should raise £6 billion a year if we are properly to curb the “reckless behaviour” of the people in the industry. That additional £4 billion a year could—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. The hon. Gentleman’s speech is going wider than the Finance Bill itself, so will he please direct his comments to the Bill?
Mr Umunna
I was actually reaching the end of my speech, Mr Deputy Speaker. The key point that I am trying to make is that there is an alternative: a deficit reduction strategy that is based on growth and fair tax rises, as opposed to the scorched earth policy being pursued by the two parties in government. The alternative is similar to the strategy that President Obama is pursuing in the US which, in vain, he is trying to persuade our Prime Minister to follow. The alternative is to go for a more sensible timetable for deficit reduction, because as Roger Bootle of Capital Economics said last week before the Treasury Committee,
“In straightforward economic terms, I am not sure it would make a great deal of difference if the adjustment were over a longer period.”
The alternative is to avoid the overwhelmingly avoidable measures presented in this Bill—not least the VAT rise—that ultimately hit the poorest hardest. I assert that the Bill is four things: avoidable, unfair, damaging to business and deeply irresponsible.
Finance Bill
Nigel Evans Excerpts(14 years, 4 months ago)
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Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)
I beg to move amendment 18, page 2, line 23, leave out ‘“6 per cent”’ and insert ‘“5 per cent in the case of personal health insurance, and 6 per cent in any other case”’.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Mr Nigel Evans)
With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: amendment 19, page 2, line 23, leave out ‘“6 per cent”’ and insert ‘“5 per cent in the case of motor insurance, and 6 per cent in any other case”’.
Amendment 15, page 2, line 26, at end add ‘, subject to a report having been laid by the Secretary of State containing an assessment of the consequences of the changes in subsection (1) on consumers and the insurance industry.’.
Amendment 48, page 2, line 32, leave out subsection (4).
Mr Chope
The amendments aim to tease out from the coalition Government and, in particular, the Exchequer Secretary, who is responding to this debate, what the Government’s attitude is towards people who do the right thing and try to relieve the burden on the public sector and the national taxpayer. Although it would be wrong to suggest that the inspiration for the amendments came from the Secretary of State for Transport, he was on to an important principle recently when he said that if a pensioner has a bus pass but can afford to pay their fare, they should not use the pass but pay the fare themselves and thereby relieve the local taxpayer of the costs consequent upon the use of that subsidised bus pass. It is a subsidy of general application—it goes to people irrespective of their means and ability to pay.
We know that quite a lot of people choose to buy medical and personal health care in the private sector without burdening the state and the taxpayer. If those people choose to do that through personal health insurance, this Budget will increase the financial penalty on them. In other words, it will be a disincentive to people taking responsibility for their own personal health care through personal health insurance. Many years ago, it was the policy of the then Conservative Government that those who subscribed to personal health care insurance should have their subscriptions tax deductible. That was based on the worthy principle that, if we did that, we would encourage more people to take responsibility for their own health care. We have moved a long way from that now.
Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)
In trying to square the circle of how we can raise taxes when there is no money, it is interesting to note that we have not committed to Labour’s rise in fuel tax, which was going to add a further £425 million—[Interruption.] If you read the small print in Labour’s last Budget, you will see that there was a plan to raise an additional £425 million—
The First Deputy Chairman
Order. We are not referring to taxes that are not proposed in the Bill. We are talking specifically about the amendments to the Bill.
Mr Redwood
How wise you are, Mr Evans.
I was making the point that the Minister, in responding to this debate on the insurance premium tax, might assuage some of our grief if he were to say that the Government had looked at the total package of taxes on the motorist and that they were aware that this was yet another example of the piling high of taxes on the motorist. Although this individual tax increase will not be large for many motorists—it will be more penal for young drivers and high-risk drivers—it is none the less an additional burden. Even if the Minister cannot accept the amendment, I hope that he will look at other ways of dealing with the problem of fair motoring taxes.
Every time something like this happens to motorists—this time, it is the insurance tax levy—they say, “We are being sandbagged again. Where are those better roads? Where is that safer junction? Where is the wish to spend money on improving the flows on the roads so that we can travel in a more fuel-efficient, green manner of which the Environment Secretary would approve?” There never seems to be the money to do that. We know that this bit of taxation on the motorist, like most others, primarily goes not to making better roads but to a wide range of other purposes; it gets lost in the general coffers.
The First Deputy Chairman
Order. It may be of interest to the Committee to know that I shall not be allowing a debate on clause stand part separately from the debate currently taking place.
Mr Bone
Thank you, Mr Evans. I am very grateful to have been called. It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time since you have been elevated to your new role. I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
The right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) made an interesting and measured speech, which I hope my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary will respond to in due course. I could not agree more with the right hon. Gentleman’s last point. We should not be increasing insurance premium tax to anything like European levels. That is one thing we do not need to learn from Europe.
I support the two amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr Chope) and I warmly support the comments made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood). My remarks about relief on motor insurance will be brief. The arguments have been made powerfully and I entirely support them. The amendment about health insurance concerns me the most.
The coalition Government have three areas of protected spending, where public spending is guaranteed to rise: the health service, overseas aid and the European Union. I want to deal with the relationship of the proposals to the health budget. Each year, £100 billion is spent on the NHS and the Government rightly recognise that spending will have to increase. There is no way round it. Demand on the health service will grow and grow, so there will have to be a real-terms increase. Even allowing for that, however, there will not be enough money to do everything in the health service.
One of my constituents is suffering from cancer and needs cancer drugs. She has to sell her house to pay for those drugs. If she had been insured, that would not have been the case. I am convinced that that lady uses the NHS most of the time, so she has not chosen to opt out by insuring herself against everything, but there will always be aspects of health provision that the NHS cannot cover because of their cost. That will mean that people have to pay extra, as this lady is doing for her cancer drugs. If we are to encourage people to insure themselves against such risk, we need to send the right signal.
The First Deputy Chairman
Order. Just before that happens, can we please restrict ourselves to the Bill and the amendments to it?
Geraint Davies
I shall bear that in mind. My hon. Friend will know that I had a previous responsibility for adapting Wales to climate change in terms of flood defences, and he will be interested to know that there are literally—
The First Deputy Chairman
Order. That is much wider than what we are discussing today.
Chris Leslie
Those who require insurance, on which the amendments would seek a report from the Treasury in order to reveal the impact not just on the Exchequer, but on individuals, will also be concerned about their contents insurance and buildings insurance, which are often where the cost of picking up reparations after flooding occur. It would be wrong of me not to pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his work before he entered Parliament.
Chris Leslie
That is a reasonable point, but I should not want to stray beyond the terms of the amendment, suffice it to say that the hon. Gentleman asks a reasonable question, because if we agree to the amendments we might be forgoing revenue to the Exchequer. My view, which he may have heard before but I am happy to share with him, is that the banks should not gain £400 million cash-back from the corporation tax reduction that they will enjoy.
Chris Leslie
Mr Evans, I felt an obligation to help the hon. Gentleman and hoped that, with that short interjection, you would indulge me.
To return to my general point, insurance is not only a public good, but a necessity for many of our constituents. Our constituents also often make the choice to take out insurance. Although I would not say that all insurance policies are good value for money and although we want to see more competition, I feel uncomfortable about the constant ratcheting up of the costs to our constituents of compulsory insurance, particularly motor insurance.
Stewart Hosie
I beg to move amendment 16, page 3, line 12, leave out ‘22 June 2010’ and insert ‘a date set by the Secretary of State by regulation.’.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Mr Nigel Evans)
With this it will be convenient to discuss amendment 17, in schedule 3, page 19, line 38, leave out ‘22 June 2010’ and insert ‘a date set by the Secretary of State by regulation.’.
Clause stand part.
Schedule 3 stand part.
Stewart Hosie
I do not intend to delay the Committee. By and large, I am very supportive of clause 6. The two-year extension for people reaching the age of 75 in order to allow them to buy an annuity when it is most effective for them is a good thing to do. The clause seems to be pretty well drafted and the description of it is extremely good. I am pleased about the protection in paragraph 8(2) of schedule 3, which provides that if a member dies before a year has passed since their 75th birthday, and at the date of death there are still funds held for the purposes of the arrangement that have not been designated as available to pay an unsecured pension, not paid as a lump sum, and not applied towards the provision of a scheme pension or a dependent’s scheme pension, those funds are treated as though they had been designated as available for the payment of an unsecured pension and will then be taxed on death at a rate of only 35%. That makes sense.
However, I am aware, through a constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Angus (Mr Weir), that there are a small number of individuals who have already reached 75, or will hit 75 before 22 June, and who did not buy an annuity because it was not worth it or not effective. I want to describe the position of that person and then see what help the Minister might be able to provide, or hear her explanation of how the clause might assist.
As the rates for annuities were very low, this gentleman did not take up one on reaching 75 in 2007. Instead, he chose a scheme pension that allowed him, subject to pension regulation supervision—a specialist firm did that for him—to continue to manage his pension fund for a period of 10 years and take the actuarially calculated levels of income from it. That was very sensible and prudent. However, the downside is that on his death, if any of that fund is left, it will be subject to inheritance tax at a rate of 80% before it passes to a family member of his choice.
Bill Esterson
The right hon. Gentleman mentioned the record of the last Labour Government on pensions, but what about the record of the previous Conservative Government when it came to the mis-selling of pensions? I trust he would accept that that was a serious problem.
Mr Redwood
I would love to deal with that point, but I shall take your advice, Mr Evans. The real sin was the tax and regulatory raid on pensions under the last Government, which led to the wholesale closures of final salary schemes, and as a result of which most people starting out in work today have no access to a final salary work-based scheme in the way that their parents’ generation did. That is a great tragedy. However, this provision is a small move in the right direction, so I hope that the House will warmly welcome it. Well done to the Minister.
Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)
Schedule 4 provides for the exemption from income tax of expenses paid or reimbursed to MPs, following the introduction under the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 of the popular new scheme for paying the expenses of MPs administered by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I understand that that will broadly have the effect of maintaining—[Interruption.]
The First Deputy Chairman
Order. Far too many conversations are taking place in the Chamber. Will those who are leaving please do so quietly?
Stephen Timms
I appreciate that the arrangements will broadly have the effect of maintaining the tax treatment that applied to similar expenses paid under the previous arrangements. Tax treatment of MPs’ expenses used to be dealt with by specific legislation or long-standing extra-statutory concessions. As hon. Members will know, a long-term project has been undertaken following the judgment in the Wilkinson case of 2006 to place all the statutory concessions on a proper legislative basis. Can the Minister confirm that the previous concession, which I think is numbered A.54—Members of Parliament: accommodation, allowances and expenses—has, with this legislation, been withdrawn, and whether any of the other extra-statutory concessions outstanding are affected by the Bill?
Stephen Timms
Clause 8 and schedule 5 amend the corporation tax rules on loan relationships and derivative contracts that apply to amounts not fully recognised for accounting purposes. This is a good example of the way in which the obligations that the previous Government introduced in 2004 on the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes are bearing fruit by revealing forms of avoidance that represent loopholes that need to be closed, which is what the clause does. The intention behind the clause was announced by the previous Government at the time of the March Budget. The provision is tightly targeted. I am not aware of any adverse reaction, and I certainly support the clause, but will the Exchequer Secretary give us his assessment of how much tax avoidance will be prevented by blocking the loophole?
I was pleased that the coalition agreement included the commitment:
“We will make every effort to tackle tax avoidance”.
Clauses 8 and 9 are the first concrete signs of that commitment being delivered. However, will the Exchequer Secretary tell us a little more about how those efforts will be pursued and what is meant in the coalition agreement by the commitment to
“detailed development of Liberal Democrat proposals”?
If I understand correctly, Liberal Democrat proposals in this area include: changing the taxation of benefits in kind; increasing the proportion of HMRC time spent on income tax evasion; a new general anti-avoidance provision for corporation tax, with companies paying a commercial rate for HMRC pre-clearance—I imagine that that is being subsumed in the wider discussion about a general anti-avoidance rule; and legislating to establish the beneficial ownership of property that is sold to prevent the avoidance of stamp duty land tax. Will the Exchequer Secretary confirm what the coalition agreement meant? Are all those initiatives—
The First Deputy Chairman
Order. I think that the right hon. Gentleman is going much wider than the provision before us. Will he confine his remarks to what is contained in clause 8?
Stephen Timms
Of course I will, Mr Evans.
I accept that there will always be areas in which there is legitimate uncertainty among business and their representatives about how the law applies. However, I am pleased that clause 8 and schedule 5 are being brought forward to block one more unwanted loophole.
Finance Bill
Nigel Evans Excerpts(14 years, 4 months ago)
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Stephen Timms
I beg to move amendment 31, page 6, line 16, leave out ‘28%’ and insert ‘25%’.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Mr Nigel Evans)
With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: amendment 32, page 6, line 20, leave out ‘28%’ and insert ‘25%’.
Amendment 33, page 6, line 25, leave out ‘28%’ and insert ‘25%’.
Amendment 10, page 9, line 29, at end insert—
‘, provided that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has laid before the House of Commons a report on the implications of aligning rates of capital gains tax with rates of income tax.’.
Schedule 1 stand part.
Finance Bill
Nigel Evans Excerpts(14 years, 4 months ago)
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Mr Kevan Jones
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Is it in order that the Liberal Democrats should now have two Front-Bench spokespeople on the Treasury? Is it completely out of order for the hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) to be rescuing and answering on behalf of his party?
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
If I had seen anything out of order, I would have called hon. Members to order myself.
Lorely Burt
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) has intervened on me twice, so perhaps he would like to join me on these Benches and make his contribution. I am sure that he will be making his speech later, and I will have the greatest pleasure in intervening on him then.
VAT is to increase to 20% with effect from 4 January 2011. This is another issue on which the Liberal Democrat bashing by the Labour party has been lengthy.
Lorely Burt
I have given way previously, so I ask hon. Members to allow me to make a little progress. A lot of people want to speak—[Interruption.]
Lorely Burt
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The other point that I want to make is that the purchases that represent more disproportionately a part of the income of lower-paid people tend to be zero-rated.
Vernon Coaker (Gedling) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Has the Secretary of State for Education indicated to you any desire to come to this Chamber to explain the situation that has arisen? Following the points of order that were made by me and two of my hon. Friends, a further list of schools affected by the Building Schools for the Future cuts was published this afternoon. That third list reflects 22 errors from the first list, which means that a significant number of communities up and down the country have been affected by the chaotic statement about schools made yesterday by the Secretary of State. Are we to expect a fourth list, given that there are still some concerns that even the latest list may not be totally accurate? If not this evening, then tomorrow, we should expect the Secretary of State to come and explain what on earth is going on in respect of the cuts that are being made to a programme that is welcomed in communities up and down the country.
Mr Deputy Speaker
I have not received any information as to whether the Secretary of State for Education wishes to make a statement this evening. I remember that in the hon. Gentleman’s first point of order for me he said that he had not received any list; he now appears to have three. I understand that the Speaker has already made a ruling on this matter. I am sure that if the Secretary of State does at some stage wish to make a statement, this House will be informed.
Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that beyond metropolitan areas such as London the Government’s decision to take away the regional spatial strategies that allowed councils to work together to deliver affordable housing will have a profound effect on the way in which we manage the problem of affordable housing?
Mr Deputy Speaker
Order. That was wide of the mark. May I ask hon. Members from time to time at least to mention things contained in the Finance Bill.
Mr Lammy
My hon. Friend makes a good point, which I hope he will have an opportunity to develop later. I want to make it clear that, as a result of the housing benefit cap, there will be an exodus from zone 1 to zones 3 and 4 and areas such as mine. I predict as a consequence something similar to what we see in Paris—suburbs that are most often brown, black and other ethnic minority in complexion and are crowded, cramped and dangerous. The decisions made in the Finance Bill will lead to social unrest.
Liberal Democrat colleagues in London, especially the hon. Members for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone), for Brent Central (Sarah Teather) and for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) should hang their heads in shame if they vote for the Bill tonight. Working people voted for them on the basis of the platform on which they stood. They know that people will suffer as a consequence because benefits will be cut and housing benefit will be capped. People who voted for them in good conscience will suffer.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Nigel Evans Excerpts(14 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. As hon. Members will have recognised, we have a 12-minute limit, and I am grateful to everybody for observing that. I am sure that the House will also want to observe the conventions associated with maiden speeches.
Toby Perkins
What he was probably referring to was 11 years of stable economic growth. What he did not foresee was that we would be hit by the biggest global economic crisis for more than 80 years. Of course, nobody foresaw that. There were no Conservative Members suggesting that the ways in which our banks were regulated would lead to the economic crisis. To pretend that you knew that that was coming or that the deficit that has been built up is somehow irrelevant to that is just ludicrous, and no one believes you, so you really must stop trying to treat people like fools when you say that the deficit that has been created was something that happened just because we had a Labour Government—
Mr Deputy Speaker
Order. I ask Members please to refrain from using the word “you”, because that means me, and the hon. Gentleman has just accused me of saying something that I have not said.
Toby Perkins
Please accept my apologies, Mr Deputy Speaker. I shall make sure that I address you and hon. Members correctly in future.
It is right to talk about the choice that Labour made, which was to protect the jobs that people relied on and to prevent an extra 500,000 going on the dole. Labour’s choice was to protect the homes that people had saved up over their whole lives to be able to buy. Labour’s choice was to support industry and bring forward public spending projects to keep the construction industry working when the private sector was sitting on its hands. Labour knew that the price of salvaging those jobs, those homes and those businesses would be an increase in our deficit. We delivered a plan for the recovery, which is working, and a plan for reducing the deficit after the recovery had been secured in the following year. The hon. Member for Bromsgrove told us that we could not keep living beyond our means, but of course we already knew that; that is exactly what the shadow Chancellor was referring to in the previously attributed quote. He made it absolutely clear what our strategy was.
Toby Perkins
I am afraid that I do not have time.
This was a Tory Budget without a shred of Lib Demery about it. I will applaud the hon. Member for Colchester (Bob Russell) if he sticks to his guns and refuses to vote for it. The Chancellor had a choice: he made the wrong choice, and we will all pay a heavy price for years to come.
Mr Deputy Speaker
Three Members wish to catch my eye, and I intend to call the winding-up speeches at half-past 5. I am sure that Members will wish to show their characteristic generosity in sharing the time.
Vernon Coaker (Gedling) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Last Thursday, I tabled a written question for named day answer on Monday of this week, to which the Department for Education’s response was that it would reply to me as soon as possible. I had asked it to name the schools that had applied for academy status, and I read in today’s edition of The Guardian that that list is to be published tomorrow, but I have as yet received no communication from any Minister. I wonder whether at this late stage you have received any request from a Minister to come to the House to explain what is going on in respect of naming the schools that applied for academy status.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I thank the hon. Gentleman for notice of that point of order. I have received no such request, but I know that Ministers in successive Governments have worked late into the night and the list might be being typed out as I speak and then be delivered to him. I know that the relevant Minister will want to keep his word, and I am sure that the Government Whip on duty will make sure the message gets through.
Capital Gains Tax (Rates)
Nigel Evans Excerpts(14 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. I know that the House will wish to observe the conventions associated with maiden speeches.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Nigel Evans Excerpts(14 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. I am sure that Members will wish to observe the conventions of maiden speeches when they take place. We will have a small number of them this afternoon.