Finance (No. 4) Bill

Debate between Ian Swales and Graeme Morrice

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Graeme Morrice]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his contribution, but I thought we were talking about the proposals in this Bill.

Although we are clear that the granny tax is not right and not fair, the coalition parties have been desperate to try to play down the significant impact of the measure. As we are aware, this is a £3 billion tax raid on our nation’s pensioners. Indeed, the right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) actually went as far as to insist that there is no granny tax at all. That will no doubt come as a great surprise to the 4.4 million pensioners who will be worse off as a result of the proposal, but it is typical of the increasingly desperate attempts by Liberal Democrats to distance themselves in the media from unpopular Government policies, before voting with the Tories to get those same measures through Parliament.

[Ian Swales]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Graeme Morrice]

I notice that there are two Lib Dems in the Chamber today, so I will give way to one of them.

[Ian Swales]

The hon. Gentleman has obviously discussed the fairness of this measure with his pensioner constituents. Has he discussed with his other constituents the fact that when his Government left office, people on the minimum wage and hard-working parents were paying £603 a year more tax than their grandparents on the same income? Does he think that that is fair and has he discussed it with his other constituents?

[Graeme Morrice]

I refer the hon. Gentleman to my comment a few moments ago: we are talking about the proposals contained within this Bill.

Whereas some brave souls in the coalition parties were prepared yesterday to rebel over pasties and static caravans, we wait to see if any of them will speak up for millions of pensioners and join us in opposing this squeeze on pensioners’ incomes. I suspect not, and the message today on the granny tax will be clear: only the Opposition will stand up for pensioners and working people in these tough times.