Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Wednesday 14th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As the hon. Lady will know, this is a consequence of a review conducted by Liz Sayce, the head of the UK disability forum. Her conclusions are supported by such organisations as Mind, Mencap and others, and I do not want to disagree with them lightly. They say—this is their conclusion and what they think we should be doing—that segregated employment, which was started in the aftermath of the second world war, is not the best way to promote the interests of disabled people in this country in the 21st century.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

Q14. Last weekend, the Deputy Prime Minister spoke about the need for a tycoon tax. Does he intend that to include individuals who claim that they want tax raised on the rich, yet set up companies so that they pay only 20%, not 50%, of their income, such as Ken Livingstone?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

It is worth dwelling for a minute on the explanation provided by Ken Livingstone for his exotic tax arrangements. I quote from an interview that he gave just this weekend:

“I get loads of money, all from different sources, and I give it to an accountant and they manage it”.

That is modern socialism for you.