Amendment of the Law

Brandon Lewis Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

We have argued for measures to ensure that people on low and middle incomes are taken out of income tax altogether. We have made significant changes to the tax credit system, which, frankly, under the previous Government, reached way up the income distribution. The changes we have made are appropriate and fair, and it is right that we have drawn back on a system that was costing many billions of pounds under the previous Government.

Taken with the previous increase in the income tax personal allowance, this measure means that this coalition Government have reduced tax paid already by basic rate taxpayers by £350 in real terms. It is this coalition Government who, as a result of the measures in this Budget, will have lifted 2 million people out of income tax altogether—59% of them women, to respond to a point made during the debate. That is the right measure on taxation and the Labour party should support it. Labour thought it was right to double the tax on people on low incomes, but we do not; we think it right to halve the tax on people on the minimum wage.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way and being so generous with his time. Does he agree that one of the important measures in the Budget that will help people trying to get into work is the change in the oil and gas taxation regime, especially on decommissioning, which could create huge investment and huge numbers of jobs in areas such as Great Yarmouth?

[Danny Alexander]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the decommissioning relief and the additional field allowances that we announced in the Budget will make a significant difference to investment in the oil and gas sector.