Oral Answers to Questions

Rupert Lowe Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth) (Reform)]

T6. As someone actively involved in a number of businesses, unlike the majority of Front Benchers, I have spent far too much of my life trying to communicate with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and I am not alone. Taxpayers cumulatively spent 798 years on hold with HMRC in 2022-23, and letters often go unanswered for months. When the phone is picked up, decent British taxpayers and their advisers increasingly are treated like criminals by arrogant, petty, unaccountable bureaucrats. Will the Chancellor commit to a comprehensive review of HMRC, to make it as accountable to the taxpayer as the taxpayer is to them—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Mr Lowe, topical questions are meant to be short and punchy. I am sure that you are very good at that normally.