Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Gregg McClymont and Baroness Primarolo

Friday 23rd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Gregg McClymont]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, which will be the last one I take, given the time constraints. The lessons of history are that, unless we can make people feel that they have money in their pockets to spend and to stimulate growth and the economy, the chances are—the Japanese example is a perfect illustration of this—that we are unlikely to recover to pre-trend levels.

At this time of stagnation and austerity, what is the Government’s priority? Is it growth, jobs and helping the hard-pressed squeezed middle? No, it is a tax cut for millionaires. Some 14,000 millionaires will get a tax cut of £40,000 per year. The 300,000 payers of the 50%—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. Hon. Gentlemen will not shout across the Chamber. The point being made is a matter for debate, and that is what is happening now. They can intervene if the hon. Member for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East (Gregg McClymont) wants to give way.

[Gregg McClymont]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Hon. Gentlemen on the Conservative Benches are becoming rather vexed, and one does not have to wonder why, given the message that they are sending out to the electorate with this tax cut, which will cost more than £3 billion at a time, as the Government emphasise, of austerity.

The hon. Member for Watford (Richard Harrington) suggests that empirical evidence shows that the 50p tax does not raise any money, but there is no empirical evidence in the document presented by the Government. There is a series of estimates, based on a view of behavioural change, itself based on a view of human behaviour, which one would have thought would have at least been challenged by the financial crisis and all that it brought.

This Government are taking a gamble that the £3 billion that they would have had in the bank—in their coffers—will be almost cancelled out by millionaires from Monte Carlo and Caribbean boltholes rushing back to show their patriotism to this country by paying a slightly lower rate of tax. Those are not my words, but the words of the Business Secretary in a previous incarnation. This tax cut for millionaires is the wrong priority for this country at this time.

We have a crisis of employment—a crisis of youth unemployment, with 1 million in the UK and one in four in Scotland now unemployed. What we need are measures to get young people back into work, but how long are they meant to wait, to take the argument of Government Members? A national insurance holiday for small and medium-sized enterprises—that is what we need. A bank bonus tax to create 150,000 jobs for young people—that is what we need. A temporary VAT cut to stimulate the economy and help out hard-pressed motorists—that is what we need. And a VAT cut for home repairs and maintenance to stimulate that important sector of the economy—that is what we need.

Then we have the granny tax. Under the guise of simplification the Government have brought in a stealth tax on more than 4 million pensioners. Some 700,000 people turning 65 years old will lose more than £300 per year—[Interruption.] Someone shouts, “No one will pay more,” and there is a debate to be had about sharing burdens.

CPI/RPI Pensions Uprating

Debate between Gregg McClymont and Baroness Primarolo

Thursday 1st March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Gregg McClymont]

The Labour party’s position is that, if the Government had introduced the switch to CPI as a temporary deficit reduction measure, it would have been worthy of serious consideration, but since they have made it clear that they view it as permanent, we cannot support it. [Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. If the hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) wants to intervene, he should stand up. It is impossible to conduct a debate when comments are shouted across the Chamber and Hansard cannot properly record them. If the hon. Member for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East (Gregg McClymont) does not mind, perhaps Mr Richard Graham will intervene.

[Richard Graham]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I do apologise. I was following the example of the shadow Chancellor.

Will the hon. Gentleman confirm for the record that his party’s policy, therefore, is to revert to an indexed inflation link with RPI if it gains power?