Finance (No. 4) Bill

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Monday 16th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

My understanding is that the Government parties matched us on spending and often called for additional spending, but the Liberal Democrats have changed their mind so often that it is sometimes difficult to keep up.

The fiscal challenges that this country faces are real, and we need to deal with the deficit and get our debt on a downward path, but the choice before us is how to do that and on whose backs. The Opposition’s priorities are to get unemployment down, to get our economy growing and businesses investing so that we can reduce the welfare bill and bring in more tax revenue, and to ensure that the biggest burdens of deficit reduction are borne by those with the broadest shoulders.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank my hon. Friend for referring to Labour’s idea of increasing jobs for the young through a tax on bankers’ bonuses. Does she agree that that would make a huge difference to young people such as those in my constituency, where long-term youth unemployment has risen by more than 200% in the past year, and send a message to all young people that Westminster and politicians across the country were on their side in these tough times?

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend speaks on behalf of the thousands of young people in Feltham and Heston who have been hit hard by the Government’s policies. The Opposition think it would be much fairer to tax bank bonuses at 50% and use that money to create jobs and opportunities for young people, but the priority of the Chancellor and his friend the Chief Secretary is a tax cut for the richest 1%, paid for by ordinary families, hard-pressed pensioners, struggling small businesses, charities and young people. All that pain is not even getting the deficit down. The Government are borrowing £150 billion more than planned—the cost of their failed economic experiment.

Members of all parties have an opportunity tonight to dissociate themselves from this disgrace of a Finance Bill. We have given the Government a chance, and we have also given them a choice. If the Bill goes through unamended, it will go down as one of the most flawed and unfair Finance Bills in history—one that makes millions pay more so that millionaires can pay less, based on a Budget that gives a £40,000 tax cut to 14,000 millionaires while ordinary households fall further into debt and our economy falls further behind. It was not the Budget that Britain needed, and this Finance Bill should be sent back to the drawing board. The Opposition will vote against it, and I urge those with a proper sense of our country’s priorities to join us in the Lobby tonight and vote down the Bill.