Amendment of the Law

Debate between Stephen Gilbert and Angela Smith

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

I welcome a Budget which shows that the coalition Government remain determined to tackle the deficit and to drive growth and job creation throughout the country, and that we will deliver tax cuts for millions of hard-working people and demand from the wealthiest in our society that they pay their fair share. This really is a Budget for millions of ordinary families throughout the country who are struggling to make ends meet, not a Budget for millionaires.

I welcome in particular, of course, the increase in the personal income tax threshold, the largest increase for a generation and a thoroughly progressive policy. It has gone from the front page of the Liberal Democrat manifesto and been turned into action under the coalition Government, and both parties deserve credit for introducing it. In terms of helping the families whom I represent in Cornwall, the measure sits alongside a freeze in council tax and the Government’s determination to tackle the injustice of water bills throughout the duchy. Some 19,300 people in Cornwall will be taken out of paying income tax, and more than 4,000 in my constituency alone will no longer pay it. I thoroughly commend the measure to the House and hope that in future years the Chancellor will be able to go further and faster.

[Angela Smith]

Will the hon. Gentleman not at least acknowledge, as my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North East (Mr Bain) said earlier, that the biggest beneficiaries of the increase in the tax allowance will be higher-income earners, not the lowest-income earners?

[Stephen Gilbert]

It is a bit rich when the Labour party talks about benefits to higher rate taxpayers, given that it abolished the 10p rate of tax, making 5 million of the lowest paid pay more tax. The coalition Government are taking the lowest paid out of tax, and that is a better direction of travel for the people whom I represent—and, I am sure, those whom the hon. Lady represents as well.

I am also keen to welcome the measures in the Budget to drive business growth—the cutting of red tape on small and medium-sized firms; the introduction of cash accounting; the enterprise management incentive scheme; and the fact that the Government are making available £20 billion-worth of additional funding to ensure that businesses across our country, from which will come the growth that will get us out of our financial difficulties, have the money to invest, expand and grow.