Karen Lumley
Main Page: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)Department Debates - View all Karen Lumley's debates with the HM Treasury
(10 years ago)
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Iain Stewart
I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s intervention. If he bides his time a little, he will see that I will touch on some of those issues later on in my speech.
Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
Does my hon. Friend agree, though, that the majority of people in my constituency would think that the Barnett formula is unfair?
Iain Stewart
There certainly is that perception. Part of my motivation for securing the debate was to address such issues so that we can have a more informed debate on the fiscal relationship principally between Scotland and England. I am conscious that Members from Wales and Northern Ireland are in the Chamber as well. My comments will be principally about Scotland and England, but the arguments also apply to the rest of the United Kingdom. As I said, there is much ill-informed comment and misunderstanding about what the Barnett formula is and does and that is why I wanted to have this debate.
As well as being misunderstood, the Barnett formula is much maligned. Contradictory simultaneous comments are made that it both penalises Scotland and is too generous to Scotland, but both of those cannot be right. I am reminded of a comment that Lord Foulkes made when he was a Scotland Office Minister about a decade ago:
“If the SNP think that Barnett is too mean and the English Tories think that it is too generous, most sensible people would think that it is just about right”.
For many years, reform of the Barnett formula has been parked in the “too difficult” box.