All 1 Julian Lewis contributions to the Finance Act 2021

Read Bill Ministerial Extracts

Mon 24th May 2021
Finance Bill
Commons Chamber

Report stage & 3rd reading & Report stage

Finance Bill Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Finance Bill

Julian Lewis Excerpts
Report stage & 3rd reading
Monday 24th May 2021

(3 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Finance Act 2021 Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: Consideration of Bill Amendments as at 24 May 2021 - large print - (24 May 2021)
Iain Duncan Smith Portrait Sir Iain Duncan Smith
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I agree with the right hon. Gentleman. The point I am trying to make to my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary and others on the Treasury Bench is a fairly gentle one: this is something that we can rectify, and we have the capacity to rectify it. We should think of what will happen if it goes much further. We should think of the loan charge and the huge human problems that were caused by that and the attempt by the Treasury to use retrospective legislation to grab money back. Who got hammered in all that? Not the organisations that were doing these things, but the individuals who were led to believe they were in the right set-up. It is always going to be them who get hammered. I thought the purpose of Government was to protect the vulnerable and deal with those who are abusing them.

Julian Lewis Portrait Dr Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)
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It really is enormously frustrating for those of us who, time and again, have made representations to Treasury Ministers on behalf of victims of the loan charge, only to be knocked back by ripostes relating to tax avoidance schemes, that now, when people who have suffered from the loan charge are urging colleagues on this side of the House and no doubt on the other side as well to take steps to ensure that people are not trapped in these schemes in the future, the Government do not want to give them that added layer of protection, so they seem to be wanting to hit them in both directions.