Tax Avoidance (HSBC)

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Monday 23rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Some very serious allegations have been made about HSBC Swiss and its role in knowingly advising people on tax evasion. Of course, our prosecuting authorities will want to look into the matter, but the House needs to know that the information that was received from the French authorities under the last Government—[Interruption.] This is important, and it is relevant to the right hon. Gentleman’s question. The information was received as the result of a negotiation with the French authorities about what use it could be put to, and the French agreement struck by the last Government said that we could use it only for prosecuting or pursuing individuals with regard to their tax affairs. We are currently in active discussion, which I think will come to a fruitful end, to get the French to allow us to pass some of that information to the Serious Fraud Office and other prosecuting authorities, to address the concern that he rightly raises about the potential or alleged role of banks in the affair.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend explain to the House how many tax avoidance schemes that he inherited in 2010 he has had to close down?

[Mr Osborne]

More than 40 tax avoidance schemes or loopholes have been closed. Of course, we have also introduced an anti-avoidance and anti-abuse rule, which the Labour Government had 13 years to introduce. Now Labour Members are saying that we should be stiffening the penalties under that anti-abuse rule, but—[Interruption.] I will tell Members who was in charge. The shadow Chancellor was in charge for 13 years and did absolutely nothing. We came in, closed the loopholes, introduced the anti-abuse rule, got rid of the abuse of partnerships by hedge funds, got rid of the abuse of stamp duty by the richest in our society and started collecting the tax that should have been collected long ago.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Tuesday 29th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

1. What assessment he has made of the effect of freezing fuel duty on the price of petrol.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

This Government will freeze fuel duty for the rest of this Parliament. As a result, petrol will cost a full 20p per litre less than if we had stuck with the previous Government’s hated fuel duty escalator. We can afford to do this because we have got a grip on the public finances.

The House will also want to know that today we learned that GDP grew by 0.8% in the first quarter of this year. That is 3.1% over the year and today’s figures show that Britain is coming back. We cannot take that for granted. We have to go on working through our long-term economic plan, but for the first time in a decade all three main sectors of the economy—manufacturing, services and construction—have grown by at least 3% in the past year.

The impact of the great recession is still being felt, but the foundations—

Autumn Statement

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Thursday 5th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. We need a responsible recovery. We need to help not just this generation, but the next one. Whether we are talking about providing opportunities for young people to get training and skills and get on in life, abolishing the jobs tax for the young people or, above all, dealing with the debts that the people who created those debts were not prepared to deal with, this is all about being on the side of young people.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

I very much welcome the removal of the arbitrary cap on student numbers, which I believe is a decision taken in the long-term interests of this country and which will bring significant economic growth in the future. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is precisely the time for universities to invest in the future? They should not do what Staffordshire university is perhaps doing by thinking about moving away from Stafford; it should invest there for the future expansion of university education.

[Mr Osborne]

I very much support my hon. Friend and his campaign to make sure that the university thrives in Stafford, and I commend him for identifying this as such an important issue for our country. Some 60,000 people a year have the grades, have the ambition, are willing to take out the loan and want to go to university, but at the moment we say no, because of a Gosplan system that has been in place. We get rid of that today. There will be a big increase in student numbers—of course quality will be maintained—and that will be great for the people he represents.

LIBOR (FSA Investigation)

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Thursday 28th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

The prices of many important international commodities are set in London, such as cocoa and robusta coffee, and tens of millions of smallholder farmers and poor people around the world depend on these. Is my right hon. Friend confident that the kind of problems that we have seen with LIBOR are not spreading to such markets, which are so important for people around the world?

[Mr Osborne]

Of course we should be vigilant in the supervision of all markets. Although there have been many complaints of the kind that my hon. Friend makes, every investigation here and, as far as I am aware, in other jurisdictions has not found the kind of market manipulation in those commodity markets as we see in LIBOR.

Autumn Statement

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Tuesday 29th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

It was the Labour Government who let the City explode. They allowed that to happen when the shadow Chancellor was the City Minister. They had 13 years to regulate the City and I suspect that on not one occasion did the hon. Lady write to either Tony Blair or the last Prime Minister calling for that regulation. The Labour party presided over the biggest financial crisis in our country’s history. We are properly regulating the banks and introducing ring-fencing. We have brought in a permanent bank tax and transparency in bankers’ pay. None of those things existed in the 13 years of Labour Government.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

I welcome the Chancellor’s statement which includes measures that will really help Staffordshire such as the M6 managed motorways scheme and the announcement on energy-intensive industries. How much does my right hon. Friend expect to make from the anti-tax avoidance measures that he has taken and that the previous Government did not?

[Mr Osborne]

I am glad that my hon. Friend welcomes the support that we have given to businesses and families in Staffordshire. I am also glad that he welcomes the M6 managed motorways scheme. We have taken specific measures to deal with both tax avoidance and unfair tax treatment. For example, the measures that I have announced to deal with double tax relief and asset-backed pension contributions will raise £450 million and the measures to deal with low-value consignment relief, which was strangling music shops on our high street, will raise £100 million. We have taken action, which the previous Government failed to take, to ensure that everyone pays their fair share.

Independent Banking Commission Report

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Monday 12th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Gentleman says we’re all doomed, but the idea of these reforms is to ensure that we are not doomed in the future.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

Following on from the Chancellor’s answer to the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Sir Stuart Bell), the figures in the Vickers report indicate that there will need to be between £200 billion and £400 billion of equity capital and other funds at risk within the ring fence. What impact will that have on the provision of capital and credit to business?

[Mr Osborne]

John Vickers explicitly examines the argument that this will somehow undermine credit and comes to the conclusion that it will not. He says that, first, because the broader benefits of a stable banking system to the banks themselves and to the economy outweigh the costs and, secondly, because retail banks will, as I say, be more encouraged to use their retail deposits to support retail lending.

Global Economy

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Thursday 11th August 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Of course we bear in mind advice from the IMF and others, but it makes it clear that that is not its central view at the moment. It asked itself a specific question, and it says this:

“The weakness in growth and rise in inflation raises the question whether it is time to adjust macroeconomic policies. The answer is no…Strong fiscal consolidation is underway and remains essential”.

That is what the IMF says in its article IV report into the United Kingdom published on 1 August this year.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

Recently, the UK has been the highest per capita exporter of services in the world, and that is vital for future growth. What action are the Government taking to ensure that we can continue to compete globally in services on a level playing field, and particularly in the European Union?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Tuesday 21st December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Gentleman seems to forget that child poverty was rising under the last Labour Government and we have put forward policies to increase social mobility and tackle the causes as well as the symptoms of poverty.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

T9. As the Chancellor knows, I have written to the Treasury with details provided to me by a Staffordshire resident of an extraordinary tax avoidance scheme inherited from the last Government. I hope that it will not last long. In the spirit of Christmas, will the Chancellor invite his predecessors around for a dram so that they can explain why they found tax avoidance such a hard nut to crack?

Financial Assistance (Ireland)

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend makes a very good observation about a particular aspect of the Irish banking situation and its impact on those property investments in the UK. We have discussed this with the Irish, and I will get back to him on whether there have been specific developments in the last few days, but I have not raised the matter as part of the discussion on the international assistance that we are providing. We are trying to put the whole Irish banking system and the Irish state, which stands behind those banks and, indeed, behind NAMA, on to a much more stable footing.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

I thank the Chancellor for his welcome statement. Given that we have sovereignty over these matters, in what currency is the bilateral loan likely to be denominated?

[Mr Osborne]

We will set out the terms and conditions and the exchange rate of the bilateral loan when we agree them over the next couple of weeks, and I will bring that information to the House of Commons.

Financial Services Regulation

Debate between George Osborne and Jeremy Lefroy

Wednesday 16th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I am not sure whether the Labour party in opposition will keep its promise to abolish boom and bust, but it proved pretty disastrous in government. All of us welcome the fact that my hon. Friend will no longer be regulated by the FSA, and instead will be regulated by the Whips Office.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

Despite some high-profile casualties, does my right hon. Friend recognise the importance of building societies and mutuals to the financial services sector? What steps does he propose to take to encourage that sector to increase?

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is right that building societies and mutuals have an important role to play in the future. We want to strengthen them and support those who want to create mutuals. We will set out the details of how we will do that in the next few weeks.