Amendment of the Law
Debate between Jim Dowd and Esther McVey(12 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Jim Dowd (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Wirral West (Esther McVey) on reading out her speech. I am not sure whether she got it from the Whips or those on the Government Front Bench, but it is patently obvious that it was completely—
Esther McVey
I appreciate the hon. Gentleman giving way. As the Wirral is somewhere I have lived all my life, and as this is something I have given great thought to and know inside out, and it comes from the heart, I know that it is a part of the country where we need to succeed, and these are the sorts of tax incentives and the sort of Budget that we need in order to be able to do that.
Jim Dowd
Yes, indeed, and as for the next bit, I do not know. None the less, I will go on to make a few points.
All Budget statements are a spectacle. When I first came to the House, people used to dress up for the Budget and it used to be more of a spectacle. Some used to put on national dress and dress in top hat and tails and all the rest of it. They do not do that any more, and perhaps it is just as well, but what has replaced it is an altogether more depressing sight, because the Budget statement has become something of a pantomime—this does not just apply to this Government and this Budget, because it has become like this over time—with the Chancellor and his acolytes sitting on the Front Bench and making a few statements and the simpletons behind them simply responding, cheering and making completely idiotic noises, whether or not they know what the Front Benchers are saying. As I said, I do not limit my criticisms to this Government because it has happened over a number of years, although I think they are the worst example of it. I do not exempt Members on the Opposition side of the Chamber, because when our Front Benchers get up there are Pavlovian responses from this side as well.
What we really need to do is look at what the Budget means today, tomorrow and, more particularly, for the next few years. All Budgets are a mixture of imperative and choice, and this Budget is no different, but what is most striking about it is the choices it makes. The Tory party has never been an egalitarian party; it has always been an elitist party. It is not just that the Government are a Government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich; what is more telling is just how right wing the Liberal Democrats are, given the opportunity—I exempt the right hon. Member for Bath (Mr Foster) because he is a decent sort of chap living in a world of his own creation. None the less we cannot get away from the fact that, were it not for the support of the Liberal Democrats, the Government would not get this Budget through tonight, they would not have got their reforms—or deforms—to the national health service through and they could not get through their reforms in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. They would not be able to do anything.
Opposition Front Benchers—I criticise them for this—are a bit addicted to terminology and cliché. We are apparently told to refer to the “Tory-led Government”, but I will not do so because I do not think that that shares the responsibility anywhere near widely enough. This is a Tory-Liberal Government, and were it not for the support of the Liberal party they could not carry through the sort of distortion they have made with this Budget. The Tories are trying to pretend that they are leopards who have changed their spots. Not only that, but they are pretending that they have traded in their spots for presentable and attractive stripes and become vegetarian. I do not believe a bloody word of it. They are what they always have been, which is a party of the privileged with a role to demonstrate to those beneath it that they know their place.
The idea that the Tories are going to simplify the tax system by taking from pensioners has resonance only if we believe that they are taking equally from everybody. To the Liberals who talk about a Robin Hood Budget, I say, “Wake up. Get real.” Robin Hood, incidentally, was a myth, remains a myth and—although I do not wish to upset any colleagues and friends from Nottingham who are here this evening—originally came from Wakefield. The idea of his taking from the rich to give to the poor is, rather like this Government, complete and utter baloney.
I have two points to make in the odd few seconds that I have left. One is on child benefit, and the other is on stamp duty. If the Government had been serious about reforming stamp duty, they would have reformed the whole thing. I am not against people on £2 million paying 7%, and I am not against companies that use their machinery for purchases paying 15%, but the measure is very unfair on those at the bottom of the scale, who have to pay 1% or 3% on the whole cost of valuation. If the Government had been serious about reforming stamp duty, they would have addressed that.
On child benefit, the Government have introduced means testing. They can means-test universal benefits, that is right, but what is next? Winter fuel allowance? Freedom passes? If they undermine universal benefit, they undermine many things that benefit millions of people throughout the country. This Budget, like this Government, is a complete and utter fraud.