Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Davies Excerpts
Tuesday 2nd September 2014

(10 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Danny Alexander Portrait Danny Alexander
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The hon. Lady deliberately ignores the fact that many people faced marginal deduction rates of more than 100% under the previous Labour Government. It is precisely because we want every single person in this country to know that they will be better off in work than on benefits that we are introducing universal credit, and she should support it as strongly as I do.

Philip Davies Portrait Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)
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The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has shown that a 3p cut in fuel duty would generate 70,000 new jobs, stimulate GDP by 0.2% and help to reduce inflation. The Centre for Economics and Business Research says that a cut would be even more beneficial to the economy and would be self-financing. Do the Government accept that a cut in fuel duty would be self-financing and provide a boost to the economy?

Danny Alexander Portrait Danny Alexander
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing attention to that study, which I have discussed with the FairFuelUK campaign, although I was slightly discomforted when it said it thought that the only two politicians it had met who understood the issue were myself and Nigel Farage—that was probably a surprise to both of us. The Treasury has published its own analysis on fuel duty reductions, which shows the economic benefits that they can bring.