Finance (No. 4) Bill

Debate between Cathy Jamieson and Mark Reckless

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Yesterday, the Prime Minister pointed at the Opposition Benches and said Labour MPs would be voting to give themselves a benefit, yet just after the Budget the Leader of the Opposition said to the Cabinet that they were getting rid of the 50p top rate of income tax to help themselves. Can we not all accept that we on the Government Benches are getting rid of the 50p rate to try to improve the economy, and Labour Members are trying to protect universal benefits and the welfare state as they have understood it?

[Cathy Jamieson]

I was hoping that the hon. Gentleman was going to respond to my point about children, but that is obviously not the case.

It is expected that the revised proposal will affect about 1.2 million families. Some 790,000 couples and 30,000 lone parents will lose the full amount of their child benefit. A further 330,000 couples and 20,000 lone parents will lose a proportion of their child benefit. The average loss will be about £1,300.

When these proposals were first announced, I tabled a parliamentary question asking for an estimate—not an exact figure—of the number of people earning between £50,000 and £60,000 who are in receipt of child benefit in each parliamentary constituency. I received the answer two days ago. It was short and simple: this information is “not available.” Surely that is exactly the sort of information that should be available in advance of such proposals being made to help MPs judge the impact of Government policies on their constituencies.

Remuneration of EU Staff

Debate between Cathy Jamieson and Mark Reckless

Tuesday 21st February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Cathy Jamieson]

The hon. Gentleman will have heard the Leader of the Labour party say on numerous occasions that he would not have walked out of the negotiations. There was no treaty on the table at that time.

I want to move on, because this point is important. As I have said, we need a mature and positive approach to Europe from the Government. When we get the opportunity to work on a cross-party basis, we should do so. We should engage in Europe and build alliances so that when important issues come up, such as those that we are debating, we have credibility and influence among our European neighbours.

[Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Cathy Jamieson]

No, I want to move on. We will no doubt continue to debate the other issues that I have raised on other occasions.

To return to the topic of this debate, it is clear that the view from all parts of the House is that the issue of EU salaries and the exception clause is important. It is also clear that the dispute between the Commission and the Council cannot continue as an annual tit-for-tat with serious financial consequences.

I once again thank the European Scrutiny Committee for recommending that such an important issue be debated on the Floor of the House. I look forward to hearing what members of the Scrutiny Committee and other Members have to say, and to hearing the Minister’s response to the questions that I have asked specifically about what action has been taken in the past year and how Ministers propose to ensure that we do not face a similar situation at any point in the future.