Amendment of the Law

Ronnie Campbell Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)]

I received a letter this morning from my local county council, Northumberland, saying how pleased it was to have got £7 million for the roll-out of broadband. I take from that letter that the council is quite satisfied. I know the council ran a campaign and met the Minister, and I wrote to him as well. We will have to wait and see how it all pans out. I am not sure that £7 million is enough to cover rural Northumberland—it is a big county and sparsely populated, so we will need some money to get it right—but I hope it works out.

I am disappointed that we did not get our enterprise zone on the River Blyth. The Chancellor mentioned in the autumn statement that he would look at the programme—we submitted a programme for 100 hectares on the river and port of Blyth—but it was not mentioned in the Budget statement. There are to be two enterprise zones in Scotland, up the road from us. I hope that he has not forgotten us and that we are still in with a chance. We have high unemployment in Blyth Valley, south-east Northumberland and Wansbeck.

[Mr David Anderson (Blaydon) (Lab)]

Perhaps my hon. Friend should get some wealthy Northumberland business men to pay a quarter of a million pounds to have lunch with the Chancellor. Then he might get an LEZ in Blyth.

[Mr Campbell]

The only place I could take them is the canteen. I might get something there, but I am sure I would not get anything in Downing street.

The 50p tax rate has been widely discussed since the Budget statement. We were told it does not do anything and that no one is paying it, which makes me wonder why we have it. We have just heard the previous Chancellor explain why he put it on, but I have to ask: if people can fiddle a 50p rate, surely they can fiddle a 45p rate? And if they are fiddling the 50p rate, what else are they fiddling?

In the Budget statement, we heard the Chancellor say he opposes people fiddling their taxes. I have been here 25 years—I suppose I am an old man compared with some—and I have heard that time and again. Every Chancellor in history—certainly while I have been here—has said, “I’m going to come down heavy on tax evaders”, but what do we see? People making profits in this country and swanning off with their swag to some tax haven—an island somewhere. They cannot go to Switzerland now, because the Swiss will give the show away, but the Government should remember the old saying, “There’s honour among thieves.” There is honour among bankers as well, so I doubt they will be getting much information from the Swiss.

The Liberals have been telling us how wonderful the Budget is, but 14,000 people in this country are going to get a £40,000 tax rebate at the expense of £3 billion from old people—pensioners. I always thought the Liberals had a little heart in them. I do not know what deal they did to get what they wanted, but I am getting a weary feeling in my bones that they sold out the health service to what they think is a good deal. I am sure, when it comes down to it, that is what they did. They sat round the table and told the Tories, “We’ll get your health Bill through Parliament, but we want this and we want that.” Well, they have come unstuck, because in fact they are getting nothing.

[Mr Foster]

I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman has looked at the detail of the OBR’s calculations, but if he does he will see that the additional money going to pensioners totals £1.75 billion and the cost of the removal of the age-related allowance is £360 million. That means a net increase to pensioners—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Campbell]

We will just have to wait and see what happens when the country goes to the ballot box and the pensioners know what the Liberals have done.

There is another thing, which is that right at the end of his speech, the Chancellor said he had to find another £10 billion from welfare. There we are: people out there are already being hit, with their benefits cut from one end to another, and now another £10 billion has to be found from welfare next year. Where are the Government going to cut? They are cutting deeply now—the poor, the sick, the old and the disabled have certainly been hit.

Finally, let me say something about pay. We Members of Parliament are public sector workers and, like everybody else in the public sector, we have the three-year pay freeze, but since this Government came to power, there has been a 3.4% drop in wages in this country. That is the wages of people who are working—and who probably voted Liberal, too. When they find out who has been pushing those policies, the Liberals might not get so many votes. Then again, what has happened to executive pay? Let us look at the figures. In 2009 executives were reported to be getting, on average, £888,000. Under the Tories, two years on, they are getting £3 million, and that is without the bonus. We have not yet seen what the bonus is. It is reported in the paper that the bonus has been kept back because of the 50p. They are all going to get a bonus that is linked to the 45p. That is the most obscene orgy of greed that I have ever seen in my life, and I hope the Liberals get what they deserve—nothing at the polls.