Guto Bebb
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(10 years, 9 months ago)
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Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr MacNeil). In 1979 I spent a fantastic summer holiday on the Isle of Barra—something that I have promised my children I will repeat at some point.
Guto Bebb
Thank you.
This has been an interesting and passionate debate thus far, but I would like to pick up on a few points made by the hon. Gentleman about the minimum wage. Members across the House will share the aspiration to increase the minimum wage, but to accuse the Prime Minister of inaction when he has simply stated a need to consider the facts is slightly unfair. On Friday, I met a number of constituents who run small hotels in my constituency. Not a single one of those six businesses had posted a profit in excess of £15,000 for the past three years, yet they all employed people and each paid slightly above the minimum wage. They want to do the right thing and retain their staff, but when talking about prosperity and creating jobs, we must ensure that anything we do with the minimum wage does not destroy the very thing that helps people out of poverty, which is having a job.
Lorely Burt
I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point about the minimum wage, but is he aware that were the Government to adopt the Liberal Democrat policy of increasing the threshold at which people start to pay tax to the minimum wage, that would achieve the living wage?
Guto Bebb
There is certainly an argument that to increase the minimum wage when, as things currently stand, the Government have already taken tax out of the minimum wage, would look as if they were kicking businesses for the sake of kicking them. I have supported the fact that the Government have increased the personal allowance dramatically, which has made work pay for people in many circumstances, but my point is that taking time over a decision is not something we should be ashamed of. Indeed, we should be proud of taking time to make the right decision on something that is so important for a constituency such as mine, where 27% of the working population are either self-employed or work for small businesses.
I must take issue with a few points raised by the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards) in his opening remarks. He began his speech by talking about Hywel Dda, who was indeed classified as one of the better Welsh kings. I was, however, surprised to hear the hymn of praise to a royalist from an avowed republican. Indeed, in terms of Hywel Dda, or Hywel the Good, being good, perhaps the true title should be Hywel the not-so-good. In addition to being the man who classified and created Welsh law, he also ordered the execution—the murder, I should say—of his brother-in-law in order to take over the kingdom of Dyfed, which is the current constituency of the Under-Secretary of State for Wales, my hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb). Furthermore, so as to extend his kingdom to the north and take over the whole of Wales, he also dispossessed the two sons of Idwal Foel from Gwynedd. When giving examples, I think we must put the man in the context of his time. It is interesting to highlight, however, that the Hywel Dda laws were in many ways ahead of their time in trying to achieve a level of equality between the sexes—not something that we saw in other parts of the United Kingdom for a very long time.
I also take issue with the comments by the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr about a proportional system of electing people leading to greater engagement with the political process. It is an attractive argument, but one that can be rejected simply by looking at the situation in Wales. We have 40 Members of Parliament who are elected on a first-past-the-post basis, and 60 Members elected to the Welsh Assembly, which uses a version of proportional representation. In a constituency such as mine, however, 70% of the electorate—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. I am a bit worried that we are getting in to a debate on proportional representation. I presume the point is linked to fairness and equality somewhere.
Guto Bebb
I am responding to the initial comments that proportional representation leads to a more involved electorate. I would challenge that because, as I was about to say, in my constituency 70% of constituents turned out in 2010 on a first-past-the-post race, but under a PR system in 2011, the turnout was only 40%. If we want democratic engagement, I argue that the evidence for the hon. Gentleman’s point is not clear.
Finally, I agree with the hon. Gentleman that when trying to ensure full employment in Wales and supporting businesses—all part and parcel of improving equality and job opportunities—we must support our small businesses and ensure that our banks are lending. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has made huge strides in trying to ensure that the banks support small businesses, but I accept the arguments about the need for further intervention to support small businesses in Wales.
I take from the comments of the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr an implied rejection of the work of Finance Wales, an organisation which has existed in Wales for a long time and has the purpose of supporting small businesses. In my view, it is a Government-supported way of supporting small businesses. On Friday, however, in my constituency I met a small hi-tech IT company employing 23 people, which had been asked to pay 9% above base to be lent money by Finance Wales. That is the type of behaviour that, if undertaken by the banks, we would be criticising openly. The initiative is supported by the Welsh Labour Government, and they should ask themselves serious questions when small businesses trying to create employment opportunities in my constituency are offered penal rates to borrow money.
I have some sympathy with the comments made by the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. I share his surprise at the behaviour of the Labour party in the Welsh Grand Committee last week. Democratic engagement is part and parcel of the process through which we engage people and tackle inequality. However, the Labour party’s rejection of the entirety of the Silk commission report, with the exception of borrowing powers, should concern us greatly. If we are to create equality, in Wales and in the United Kingdom as a whole, we should avoid spending more money on debt repayment than we do on education. The only part of the Silk commission report that the Labour party seemed willing to support was more borrowing powers—no surprise, perhaps—but that is a betrayal of the aspirations that those of us on the Government Benches have for the people of Wales.
Mr MacNeil
I have been hearing quite a bit about the Welsh Labour Government’s rejection of more powers going to Wales, but I still cannot find the reason for that. Do they doubt their own abilities of stewardship and governance? Does the hon. Gentleman know why they do not want them?
Guto Bebb
It is not for me to correct the hon. Gentleman, but I am not sure whether the proposals were rejected by the Welsh Government. They were certainly rejected by the Labour Front-Bench team in Westminster—a significant difference. Perhaps Labour Members can enlighten us on whether there is a lack of trust between the Westminster team and the Assembly team.
The motion is wrong-headed in many ways, but its key failure is highlighted in the final sentence, which
“calls on the Government to halt its further spending and welfare cuts”.
That tells us that the motion is not serious. It talks about the importance of creating equality and opportunities and supporting people and communities, yet it does not recognise that to have a successful, sustainable economy we cannot carry on borrowing at rates that are unsustainable in the long term. There is nothing moral, fair or reasonable about asking our children and grandchildren to pay for our mistakes. We have a responsibility to future generations not to saddle them with unsustainable debts. We have an ageing population and a demographic problem, nowhere more so than in parts of north Wales that I represent. We face a real challenge to care for the elderly and to ensure that we have a fair pension system. Future generations will have to meet those obligations. In asking them also to meet our inability to take hard decisions, the motion is not a serious one, and it deserves to be rejected.
Jonathan Edwards
Will the hon. Gentleman inform the House what the debt to GDP ratio is now—it has risen under this Government, of course—and what it was in 1947, when the NHS was created?
Guto Bebb
The hon. Gentleman has made this point on numerous occasions. He is absolutely correct to say that the level of debt has increased under this Government, but for a party that says the level of debt should have increased at an even faster pace, it is hardly reasonable to argue that this Government have therefore failed. It should also be pointed out that we have an NHS that is, rightly, much more expensive and costly than it was in 1948, so that is a false analogy.
Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)
Dare I say it, but the comment by the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards) shows that until we balance our books and are in surplus we will never start to pay down debt. His motion contradicts his desire to reduce the debt to GDP ratio.
Guto Bebb
I fully accept and endorse my hon. Friend’s comments. It is important, when we debate public spending and the level of so-called cuts, to bear in mind that we are running a state that is not meeting its obligations. Even in this financial year, we are borrowing £110 billion. We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. It would be an irresponsible Government who would damage the opportunity for people to have more equality through a willingness to borrow more without any plan to reduce the country’s level of debt.
Mr MacNeil
Is the problem for the Government not that the rush and the desire to attack the deficit has taken the focus away from what they should be doing: returning demand and growth to the economy? To make an equivalence between the national economy and a household budget is wrong-headed in the extreme and has led to the three-year delay in growth. It is leading to the wrong policies and—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. In fairness, the hon. Gentleman has had a good day. He has made a lot of interventions and he spoke for almost an hour, so to try to make another speech is unacceptable. A lot of Members want to get in.
Guto Bebb
I reject the hon. Gentleman’s argument. To have more equality, we need more jobs and economic opportunities. The hon. Gentleman argues that that would happen with more Government spending as a proportion of the economy. If that was the case, then Wales would be, by a long stretch, the most successful part of the United Kingdom, because there is no part of the UK more dependent on the public purse. The dependency on public spending in Wales has led to failure not over the past three or four years, but over a 15 to 20-year period. It has not led to economic growth or prosperity, and it has not led to economic opportunities. Indeed, the very reverse is true: the size of the state in Wales is one of the reasons why the rebuilding job being undertaken by the Westminster Government is so important. In a Welsh context, we have created an economy that is unbalanced and has not created the variety of jobs needed to support our young people and ensure that we have an equal society. I argue very strongly that anybody who says that the answer to all economic issues in a Welsh context is more public spending is simply wrong.
Guto Bebb
I will try to make a bit of progress.
The key point to remember is that those who now claim that the economic recovery has been too slow in coming are the exact same people who claimed that unemployment would increase dramatically because of the decisions taken in 2010. They are often the same voices who argued that there could be no growth without public spending, yet in Wales and in the whole of the UK we are seeing a vast increase in private sector employment. We have 1.5 million new private sector jobs, a ratio of almost 4:1 in comparison with the loss of jobs in the public sector. Wales is not an exception. Time and again when this is debated in the Welsh media, we hear people saying that the economic recovery is happening in London and the south-east. That is simply not reflected in the facts. In Wales, unemployment is falling and employment rates are increasing.
Anyone who is genuine about the opportunities necessary to reduce inequality would welcome the jobs that are being created. What we often hear from the parties on the Opposition Benches, however, is a complaint about the type of jobs being created: that they are not proper jobs and not the type of jobs we should be proud of. That is such a demeaning comment to make to people going out of their way to try to earn their living. I wonder how someone working in a Tesco or an Asda in my constituency feels when they hear a member of the Labour party demeaning a job as nothing more than shelf stacking. Such comments from a party that claims to represent labour are utterly disgraceful. I have made this point to the House previously and I will make it again.
One of the most moving things I have done as an MP was to visit a Tesco partnership store in Toxteth, in Liverpool. I can tell Members that a visit from a Conservative MP from north Wales is not something that happens very often at any store in Liverpool. The Tesco store in Toxteth was the largest inward investment into Toxteth since the riots in 1982. It was Tesco that undertook that investment. Half the staff employed at that store had been unemployed long term—for more than 18 months. The retention rate was more than 94% and the pride they showed in the fact that they were now working for a living was moving—there is no other way of describing it. I met one lady who ran the bakery section and asked whether she would ever want to move on. Her response was, “I’d have to be taken out of here in a box. It has given me my life back.”
Mr Russell Brown
I apologise to the hon. Gentleman—perhaps I am not in the Chamber as often as I should be—but I have yet to hear any of my colleagues condemn anyone in the retail sector. Those are valued jobs and, as the hon. Gentleman, I and many other colleagues know, working in retail is about much more than serving customers and stacking shelves.
Guto Bebb
I welcome that intervention from the hon. Gentleman, who clearly understands the importance of the retail sector. I was talking about comments made on radio and television by members of the Labour party. When I hear those comments I get annoyed as they refuse to acknowledge the fact that the sector provides the individuals in Tesco in Toxteth, or in various businesses in my constituency, with the opportunity to start a career, learn a skill and move on—and I would argue that people need a job to be able to move on to another job. It makes such a difference and those opportunities should not be dismissed by those who earn far too much to appreciate how important it is to earn a living, perhaps for the first time, and, in some cases, to be the first member of a family for a generation to take a job.
We need to be aware of the fact that the success we are seeing across the UK is being replicated in Wales. In a Welsh economy with relatively low levels of pay, it is even more important that we reduce the tax burden on those individuals. I have heard Opposition Members complain that although it is all very well to reduce people’s tax bills, by increasing the personal allowance tax credits have been reduced. That is not about what is right for the individuals; it represents the significant difference between the Government and Opposition. Government Members want to allow people to keep as much of their earnings as possible, because if a person goes out there and works we should tax them as little as possible. The Opposition were quite happy to tax people earning as little as £6,000 a year and recycle the money through an expensive, well-paid bureaucracy before paying it back to buy a client state. That was the dishonesty of the tax credit policy.
Nia Griffith
Will the hon. Gentleman explain why his party has introduced measures that have cut the taper on the tax credit system, making it much more severe and causing more difficulties for people? Does he not agree that the only way to reduce the tax credit bill, as tax credits top people up to a decent wage, is to ensure that wages go up through a strong minimum wage and incentivise employers to introduce a living wage?
Guto Bebb
As the hon. Lady knows, as I have already touched on the minimum wage, I believe that it is a complex issue that must be considered carefully. My view is that we should carefully consider moving towards a point where we do not need tax credits, as the imperative is to allow people to earn a living and pay as little tax as possible on their earnings. That should be the aspiration.
Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)
My hon. Friend mentions the issues caused for his constituents by the way in which the Labour party dealt with income tax and the tax threshold, but were they not compounded by the removal of the 10p tax rate?
Guto Bebb
It undoubtedly did not help.
When we discuss inequality we should be aware of the key point that the Government have been very proactive in ensuring that the inequality faced by pensioners is dealt with. We can compare the impact of the triple lock on pensioner poverty with the previous Labour Government’s decision to increase pensions by a paltry 75p.
Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)
Taxation is not just about income tax, but about VAT. Is that not perhaps the most unfair tax on those at the bottom of the pile?
Guto Bebb
I would reject that argument. We talk about VAT, we often forget the exemptions. If somebody is buying a new Ferrari, I have no problem with their paying £50,000 in VAT. If somebody buys their food in a supermarket, they pay 0% in VAT. If VAT were 20% on every single item, it would be a regressive tax. For those who spend a significant proportion of their income on food, or on household fuel, which is taxed at 5% rather than 20%, the VAT issue is not as clear cut as Opposition Members try to make it.
Guto Bebb
Not at the moment.
When we talk about inequality, it is important to recognise that the Government’s work on pensioner benefits has significantly reduced pensioner poverty. We should also recognise that in a country such as Wales, with such a high dependence on self-employment, the Government’s moves to introduce a single-tier state pension will make a huge difference for those who are self-employed and will result in less inequality when people reach retirement.
The hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, who has now, unfortunately, left his seat, said that there was a need for more investment in a Welsh context. Let me be very specific about the situation in Wales. Since 2000 and 2001, the Welsh Government, supported by European structural funding, has invested billions of pounds in so-called initiatives to deal with Wales’s lack of economic progress. When people talk about the need for public sector investment to create wealth and employment opportunities, it is important to consider the case study of how European funding, spent under the guidance of the Welsh Labour Government—and under the Welsh Labour and Plaid Government for four years—was used through so-called interventions that were meant to create employment opportunities and ensure that we had a more equal society. That has failed dramatically and for the entire period of intervention by the Welsh Government and the EU, west Wales and the valleys have gone backwards rather than prospering.
Guto Bebb
Let me finish this point.
Back in 2000, when the decision was made to apply for objective 1 funding it was argued that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Wales as the GDP of west Wales and the valleys as a percentage of the European average was roughly 74%. As hon. Members will be aware, once that percentage is above 75% the highest level of EU intervention is not available. It was also described as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because in 2004 all the accession countries from eastern Europe, which had been behind the iron curtain for decades, would become part of the European Union. Lo and behold, in two rounds since 2001 Wales not only has qualified for such funding but has qualified because we are going backwards rather than forwards. Those Members who argue that public spending, Government intervention and the “Government know best” mentality are the way forward for the Welsh economy should seriously consider the impact of public spending on west Wales and the valleys.
I shall now take a final intervention from the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar.
Mr MacNeil
What the hon. Gentleman is describing in Wales is a symptom of picking winners; things cannot happen there organically. What is the difference between the EU accession states and Wales? What is the difference between Wales and the Republic Ireland, which used to be behind, but is now well ahead of Wales? The difference is that they have Governments who can make things happen organically within their nations, instead of having to join the “picking winners” line because of policies from another country’s capital that do not fit their needs.
Guto Bebb
Obviously, I do not accept most of the hon. Gentleman’s arguments; certainly, we should be careful about taking lessons from the Irish implosion. Ireland is probably one of the few countries to have a banking crisis even greater than ours. Many of the eastern European accession countries have managed to create vibrant economies by imposing low-tax regimes, and the whole of the UK should look carefully at those countries’ performance.
In the debate about whether we have a 50p, a 45p or a 40p tax rate, I remind Labour that it found the 40p tax rate completely acceptable for the vast majority of its 13 years in government. What is the purpose of income tax? That is a question that is often forgotten. Its purpose is not to bring down and punish the successful. If we believe in a more equal society, we want more money coming into the Exchequer, because that means we can do more to support the less well-off in society, but we have lost sight of that argument. If we reduce taxes and get more money coming into the Exchequer, that is something that should be welcomed. Time and again, it has been shown that when taxes are reduced, more often than not, the result is more economic activity and a greater success story.
Richard Fuller
Does it not strike at the economic illiteracy of the shadow Front-Bench team that they are far more interested in a headline tax rate than in raising revenue to pay for the public services people want?
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. Before the hon. Gentleman continues, I should point out that this debate has been going for more than two and a half hours, and he is only the fourth speaker. If every Member insists on taking this long, there will be a lot of disappointed people in the Chamber. I am sure he has lots to say, but so have other Members, and some consideration on both sides of the Chamber could help in making speeches just a little shorter than over half an hour.
Guto Bebb
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I took my cue from the initial speeches, which I think lasted an hour.
The issue of tax is crucial. I do not want to reduce tax for the sake of it; I want to reduce it because it will stimulate the economy and bring more money into the Exchequer. The hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar said he wanted to reduce corporation tax to stimulate the economy. I do not understand why reducing corporation tax stimulates the economy, but the same does not work for individuals.
I turn to inequality and the attack in the motion on the Government’s welfare reforms. Those reforms are crucial to the coalition Government’s legacy. In 2010, it was said the coalition came together to deal with the deficit, but just as important, I would argue, was the welfare reform agenda. It might not work, but if it does not, it will be the greatest shame. This brave effort to reform our welfare system is not about penalising people or depriving them of money; its whole purpose is to show faith in people—a faith never shown by the opposition parties.
The Labour Government had a make-believe target for taking people out of poverty. Poverty was defined as below 60% of the average wage, so if the average wage rose by 10% and the wage of somebody on 60% went up by 10%, they moved from not being in poverty to being in poverty. They were better off, but because the line had moved, they were defined as being in poverty. Even worse, if somebody was on 60% plus £1, they were defined as not being in poverty and therefore a success for the Government. That person did not necessarily feel suddenly out of poverty—they still struggled and found life difficult—but policy makers could forget them because they were above that line. That is why we ended up with 5 million unemployed people during 13 years of the previous Labour Government—5 million people, yes, who had money thrown at them so as not to embarrass Labour in relation to its poverty target, but 5 million people forgotten by Labour and denied the initiative to work because they were being paid to be on welfare. It was deeply shameful that they ignored people in that way, and I am proud to be part of a coalition Government who are at least making an effort to deal with it.
Between 2005 and 2010, 400,000 people born in the UK moved into unemployment, yet 700,000 jobs were taken by people not born in this country. There was something wrong with a system that said to people in my constituency, “You can be on welfare, while someone from eastern Europe works in the local hotel or the abattoir.” That is shameful, and we need to deal with it, because the opportunity to develop must start somewhere.
I feel passionately about this issue when I talk to the deputy manager of a hotel in my constituency. He came to this country from the Czech Republic, and within 18 months he was a deputy manager. I was very pleased for him, but I thought that the job could have been given to someone from the locality if that person had not been held back by the welfare trap that we had created. Our gradual move towards universal benefit is a brave move, but although it has been supported by Opposition Members in terms of their rhetoric, in terms of their actions they have rejected every effort that we have made to reform a system that is immoral, and is the basic reason for the fact that we have so much inequality in Wales.
The Labour party in Wales should feel particularly ashamed. The areas in Wales that are really struggling have given their loyalty to the Labour party not for one generation, not for two generations, but for three or four generations, and they have been failed time and again. It is clear from today’s debate that the Government are making really brave decisions to try to ensure that people are not seen merely as numbers so that they can be taken £1 over a moveable poverty line. Our coalition tries to see the value of each and every individual, and the contribution that the individual can make. Nothing will make a bigger impact on inequality than getting people back to work when they are capable of making a huge contribution that is currently being wasted.
When I see motions of this kind, what I see is the same old rhetoric of the middle-class, left-wing readers of The Guardian who have dominated this country for far too long. What we need are the reforms that are being implemented by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. What we need are the tax reductions that are being implemented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. What we need is to show faith in the people of the country, whether that country is Wales, Scotland or the United Kingdom. Government Members see those people’s potential, but I fear that Opposition Members—especially those in the Labour ranks—saw them simply as numbers to be dealt with in the context of their poverty targets while doing nothing to help them, and they should be truly ashamed of that.
Nia Griffith
As the hon. Gentleman points out, there is still a long way to go. There are still many things that we all need to put right. Carmarthenshire county council has decided that over the next two years the 1% pay increase should be weighted towards those on the lowest pay to try to bring them up to the living wage, thus penalising the people at the top, because that is a way of bringing in a measure of equality.
Yes, of course there is still a lot to do. We began with the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act and the agency workers directive, but there is still a lot more to be done on the whole issue of zero-hours contracts, including using procurement, in the same way as the Welsh Government, to tackle blacklisting. When someone is blacklisted—they can no longer get employment in particular industries because their name has been passed round from employer to employer—it can be a terrible blight for a family. As in Wales, through the power of procurement we will say that we do not want public bodies to use contractors that are blacklisting people. That will be a powerful provision to raise the living standards of all those being paid from the public purse, whether by councils directly or by contractors.
People are able to make choices and there are mitigating factors and different ways of tackling poverty. In Wales, for example, by 2015 the Welsh Government will have doubled the number of children and families benefiting from Flying Start, whereas in England 500 Sure Start centres have closed. The Jobs Growth Wales programme is ahead of target in enabling 4,000 young people a year to take on a job, mostly in the private sector. It has a very high success rate, with some 80% being offered permanent jobs at the end of their stay. The Welsh Government have also increased the funding of the pupil deprivation grant, giving it a £35 million boost to help those from the least well-off homes to achieve their potential.
Equality is also about making those with the broadest shoulders take the biggest load. That is why we introduced the 50p tax rate, and we would reintroduce it for those earning more than £150,000 per annum. It has now emerged, from figures produced by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, that almost £10 billion more was raised by the 50p tax rate during the three years it was in place than was originally estimated by the Government in 2012. The shadow Chancellor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Morley and Outwood (Ed Balls), has confirmed our support for a mansion tax. We have used the tool of a bankers’ bonus tax in the past and would do so again in order to provide thousands of job opportunities for young people. We would roll out a house-building programme of 200,000 houses a year to help bring down the price of housing. Labour’s Companies Act 2006 includes provisions the Government have refused to implement that would enable pensioners and investors to see how pension fund managers vote on remuneration packages, which would bring transparency to what is happening at the very top of the pay scales.
As prices continue to rise faster than wages, people are unable to cope with the expenses they face at the end of the month, which is making them ever more prey to exploitation by payday loan companies charging exorbitant interest rates and costs. That is why we have called for the Financial Conduct Authority to use its powers to implement, as soon as possible, a total cost cap on the amount that payday lenders can charge, in order to protect borrowers and ensure that Britain has a consumer credit market that works for everyone. Under pressure from Labour and other campaigners, such as Sharkstoppers and Debtbusters, the Government have now agreed to grant the newly created FCA the power to cap the total cost of credit through the Financial Services Act 2012 and to compel it to use that power through the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013.
As well as capping interest rates, we need to find alternative sources of loans to help people in difficult circumstances and to put further pressure on the payday loan companies and squeeze them out of the market. With some lenders making profits of as much as £1 million a week, my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition has called for a levy on such profits in order to raise capital for alternative and affordable sources of credit such as the credit unions. That would give an additional £13 million to credit unions to offer more financial support to people who are in need of loans.
Nia Griffith
I am not aware of that, so I will not comment on it, but we certainly need to look at alternative forms of credit in order to stop people having to go to payday loan sharks. Given the explosion in the volume of payday loan company adverts in the past few years, we have also pledged to take action to exclude them from children’s programming in the same way as alcohol and gambling advertisements are excluded.
We very much support setting up a commission of inquiry to investigate the impact of the Government’s welfare reforms on the incidence of poverty. I, together with many Labour colleagues, spoke in favour of such a commission in the debate on 13 January, and I am wondering what the Government will do about that. I urge them to set up such an inquiry as soon as possible.