Economic Update

Kenny MacAskill Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

I am loth to get involved in an east midlands-west midlands spat, but I very much encourage my hon. Friend in his efforts. He makes an important point about the importance of local leadership. It will be local leaders—town councils, parish councils, local authorities and local enterprise partnerships—who drive forward our recovery one area at a time.

[Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian) (SNP) [V]]

As others have mentioned and the Chancellor has acknowledged, the least well-off have suffered disproportionately from the health effects of the virus and must not pay the price of the economic consequences. Will he therefore ensure that the cost of these measures is borne not by the poor and low-paid, but by those with wealth and assets, whether in land and property here or in tax havens abroad, as so many chums in the Cabinet seem to have?

[Rishi Sunak]

Our record speaks for itself: this Government have done more to tackle tax evasion and avoidance than any other Government in history. We collect hundreds of billions of pounds more than has ever been collected. Indeed, I seem to recall that many of those measures were opposed by Opposition parties.