Finance (No. 2) Bill (Third sitting)

Debate between Oliver Ryan and James Wild

Committee stage
Thursday 29th January 2026 Public Bill Committees

[James Wild]

My hon. Friend makes a valuable point. We want more certainty within the system, as far as possible. On earlier clauses, we debated the uncertainty that can come from having administrative rules that HMRC can interpret. Our amendment would give people confidence that their income and the benefit they receive would continue in real terms.

Nobody disputes the need to focus support on those who need it most. Where the Chancellor got it wrong was in taking it away from people who are just over the £13,000 income threshold. If the Government insist on recovering payments, they need to get the fundamentals right, with clear definitions, robust data sharing and a simple route for challenging any mistakes that may have been made.

Let us be clear. We welcome the Chancellor’s latest U-turn, reversing the very first decision she took in office. She was wrong to remove the benefit from millions of pensioners. This clause helps her to correct her poor political choice.

[Oliver Ryan (Burnley) (Lab/Co-op)]

I have a great deal of respect for the hon. Gentleman, and I know he is trying his best, but I am surprised at the tone that he is taking and at his language around the winter fuel allowance. He can correct me if I am wrong, but the 2017 Conservative manifesto outlined stripping this benefit completely—and that was from the Government in which he served as a special adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister. Why does he not tell us what he really thinks?

[James Wild]

I may not have read that manifesto as closely as the hon. Gentleman. [Laughter.] For the record, I did not say that. I think the record will also prove that that measure was not put into effect. We continued the winter fuel payment. The issue is that the Chancellor came along. She was given advice by Treasury officials—no offence to the Treasury officials in the room—suggesting this was a simple way to save some money and fill a fictional black hole. Foolishly and regrettably, she went along with that advice; happily, she is now correcting her mistake in part.

I am looking to press amendment 41 to a vote, because it is important that we give pensioners certainty that the threshold will be protected.

Finance (No. 2) Bill (Second sitting)

Debate between Oliver Ryan and James Wild

Committee stage
Tuesday 27th January 2026 Public Bill Committees

[James Wild]

The Minister has skirted over quite a few detailed issues rather briefly. It will reassure the Committee to know that I intend to take a bit more time to go through what are detailed and important principles, and to reflect on questions raised in an earlier clause—how competitive we are, what we want to do, and whether we want to attract wealthy people to the country.

I will initially speak to clause 43, schedule 3 and amendments 30 to 35, which were tabled in my name. Clause 43 introduces schedule 3 of the Bill, and members of the Committee will see that the schedule runs to 14 pages of complex detail, so it is important that we properly scrutinise it. Those pages make various changes to the foreign income and gains regime brought into effect by the Finance Act 2025. On the surface, this may look like a simple tidying-up exercise, but on closer inspection it raises some important questions about the coherence of the Government’s overall approach to taxing globally mobile individuals.

While we support fair taxation, this Government have once again produced needlessly complex legislation that contains retrospective elements and leaves ordinary people potentially facing unexpected tax bills.

[Oliver Ryan (Burnley) (Lab/Co-op)]

Could the shadow Minister reflect on the fact that this clause has more amendments tabled to it than any we have dealt with so far? It deals with non-resident non-dom individuals who have previously tried to get away with paying certain levels of tax in this country. I know that he will take us through some of the details of that, but I would like to go back to the macro of his party position. If he talks about ordinary people, surely he should agree with the benefits of these changes. They would not only simplify the system but bring in much-needed tax revenue from those previously non-dom individuals who did a good deed for so long under the previous Conservative Government.