Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

David Morris Excerpts
Tuesday 7th February 2023

(1 year, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Jeremy Hunt Portrait Jeremy Hunt
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My hon. Friend is a formidable advocate for that sector and I do want to give him that reassurance. That is why we protected our R&D budget in the autumn statement at its highest ever level. We are continuing to look at how we can support the R&D small companies sector without allowing that fraud to happen. Thanks to his campaigning and the work of this Conservative Government, last year, we became only the third trillion-dollar tech economy in the whole world.

David Morris Portrait David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)
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May I thank the Chancellor for awarding Morecambe £50 million for the Eden project? It will transform my whole community. My question is about VAT tapering. When I was David Cameron’s small business tsar—a very long time ago—I came up with a formula for VAT tapering. Would my right hon. Friend like to meet me to talk about that further?

Jeremy Hunt Portrait Jeremy Hunt
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First, I congratulate my hon. Friend on his extraordinary campaigning for Eden Project North, which is a model for MPs standing up for their constituencies; he deserves huge congratulations on that. I will happily look at his proposals on VAT tapering. We already have the highest VAT threshold in the G7, but anything we can do to help small businesses, this Conservative Government always do.