Scottish Football (Tax Liabilities)

Debate between Thomas Docherty and Lord Dodds of Duncairn

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Westminster Hall

[Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure, Mr Betts, to serve under your chairmanship for the second time during this Session. I have been asked to give the apologies of some hon. Friends who are detained in the Scottish Affairs Committee and the Treasury Committee. I am sure that many of them would otherwise have been here to discuss their take on what has happened in the Scottish game in recent weeks.

Hon. Members need no reminding of the importance that football clubs play in our communities north and south of the border. I am privileged to have two senior football clubs in West Fife. Dunfermline Athletic is in my constituency, and Cowdenbeath is some 800 metres over the border in the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), the former Prime Minister. I want to say a little about the role of those clubs, and clubs like them, throughout Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

On Saturday, I was lucky to be taken to Cowdenbeath’s home game against Brechin City football club as the guest of a local law practice, Stenhouse Husband & Irvine. While sitting with the club’s board of directors over lunch, I was able to talk about the state of the Scottish game as a whole, and the way in which clubs operate in the lower divisions. People give up their time and money to support clubs such as Cowdenbeath and Brechin City, and I was struck that they do so not for financial gain, or the glamour, or even the company of Members of Parliament, but because of their deep affection for the clubs in their communities, their love of football, and because they want to give something back to their home towns.

On Saturday afternoon, I had the opportunity to spend some time with the chairman of Cowdenbeath football club, Donald Finlay QC. You may not be familiar with that name, Mr Betts, but he is one of Scotland’s highest profile Queen’s Counsel, a former vice-chairman of Rangers football club, twice rector of the university of St Andrews, and someone who has enjoyed a colourful and entertaining history of involvement with Scottish football. While chatting to him on Saturday afternoon, I asked him why, having been involved with Rangers during their most successful period, highlights of which included narrowly missing out on a European cup, and achieving nine league titles in a row, he provided so much time and energy to support one of the lesser lights of Scottish football. I hope that Mr Finlay does not mind me sharing his answer. He said that he was Cowdenbeath born and bred, and was always proud of his home town. He simply wanted to put back a little into the community that he loves so much.

The second thing that struck me was that clubs in the lower leagues operate with far more fiscal responsibility than some of the clubs in the top two flights of Scottish football. Perhaps it is because those involved in the running of lower league clubs are local business men and lawyers that they have a healthier respect for a balance sheet, and recognise that a club’s expenditure must not exceed its income. It is undoubtedly a source of frustration to many smaller clubs that every month they must account for every penny while the so-called big boys of Scottish football are able to rack up debts of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds, with no obvious means of repayment.

Thirdly, it is worth noting that those who work behind the scenes at our smaller clubs often do so for little or no recompense, and would normally have no expectation of receiving any praise or credit. For example, on Saturday, I discovered that the tannoy announcer at Cowdenbeath FC is Mr Jim Stark, who was editor of the Central Fife Times. Behind the scenes, one of the key cogs in the functioning of a successful match day is Mr Alex Haddow, chairman of the local community council. Without the tireless support of such individuals, and hundreds of other community heroes, clubs such as Cowdenbeath and Brechin City would not function. The strength of feeling in clubs further up the Scottish leagues is equally strong, and due to the full-time nature of their clubs, arguably their roots go even deeper into their local communities.

For the sake of probity, perhaps I should declare an interest at this stage. I am not only a Dunfermline Athletic season ticket holder, but my constituency office is located within the club. Dunfermline Athletic—or the Pars—like many other clubs, has invested heavily in supporting youth and grass-roots football. Indeed, the club offers classes for children from 18 months and through primary school to introduce them to the game, and to build their confidence and interpersonal skills. Those classes, with the support of their parents, help to develop children’s motor skills, and they provide a fun and safe environment so that children can integrate and develop their characters. The emphasis is, rightly, on fun and enjoyment, but it is a crucial role, for which clubs receive no financial recompense, and fills a vital role in society—some might say the big society, which the Minister is so keen on. Beyond primary school, football clubs, like those south of the border, have successful youth academies. Dunfermline’s under-14s and under-15s recently visited the city academy in Manchester, and were able to take part in a contest against players from the likes of Manchester City.

The financial situation in Scottish football clubs in recent years has been dwarfed by their counterparts in the English leagues. I shall provide some context for the finances of Scottish football. The television sponsorship deal in Scotland is only approximately 1% of that south of the border. Outside the old firm, players’ wages in the Scottish premier league are typically only £1,000 to £3,000 a week, which is a fraction of that paid to players in the premiership, the championship, or even league one. To put it simply, the annual wage of a Dunfermline player is less than the weekly salary of a Manchester City, Chelsea, or Manchester United squad player. None the less, clubs such as Dunfermline are expected to compete with the giants of Scottish football.

The recent financial events at Rangers football club cannot be seen in isolation. Before I talk about the impact on other clubs of Rangers going into administration, it is worth recapping the saga at Ibrox. The origins of Rangers’ problems date back over two decades. In 1988, David Murray bought a majority shareholding in the club for approximately £6 million. Mr Murray invested heavily in building a team that could not only dominate the Scottish league, but compete with the best of Europe. Something that is often forgotten is that when Rangers, under Murray and Graeme Souness, were building their successful side, which would go on to win nine league titles in a row, English clubs were banned from competing in Europe, so Rangers were able to attract players from England who, to play in Europe, either had to move to Europe or travel north of the border to play for the old firm. The list of players at Rangers during the late ’80s and early ’90s was a “Who’s Who” of Bobby Robson’s England team. The names will be familiar to every English fan: Chris Woods, Terry Butcher, Trevor Sinclair, Gary Stevens, Trevor Steven, Ray Wilkins and Trevor Francis. They were great players in a great team.

Rangers were able to use their dominance and ongoing success to attract some of Europe’s best players, such as Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne. Unfortunately for the club, their ambitions were never matched by their income, and in 2004 those debts peaked at a staggering £72 million. However, in the next few years, Rangers reduced their debt to some £30 million by the end of the decade, according to their annual accounts. In 2010, Mr Craig Whyte confirmed to the stock exchange that he was in talks with Rangers’ owners about a takeover. In 2011, Mr Whyte formally bought the club for a notional £1, having agreed to take on the club’s debts. He promised Rangers fans that he would be able to service those debts.

[Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate. He referred to the history and the debts racked up by Rangers, but does he agree that that is commonplace today? Manchester City and Chelsea have massive debts, far in excess of what Rangers ever racked up. The only difference is that they have someone to stand behind those debts. The phenomenon is not new, and sadly it has not gone away, but it is not unique to Rangers.

[Thomas Docherty]

The right hon. Gentleman is correct. What is appalling about the Rangers situation, and has come to light in recent weeks, is that Mr Whyte did not have the money to service the debt. It has now transpired that in what I would regard as a most disgraceful act, Mr Whyte and cohorts borrowed money from Ticketus on the future sale of season tickets. In effect, Rangers fans paid for Mr Whyte’s ill-fated takeover; they are the losers, and I am sure that disgraceful situation will be recognised across the House.

Armed Forces Bill

Debate between Thomas Docherty and Lord Dodds of Duncairn

Tuesday 14th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Thomas Docherty]

The Minister shakes his head. I understand that there might be some vacancies coming up at the Department of Health shortly. I think that he might be up for promotion, so I could not possibly comment on whether he would be on the Front Bench next to the Secretary of State for Health—although the Defence Secretary is a GP, of course, and would be eminently suitable as a Health Secretary, if such a vacancy were to come up. However, having to wait until 19 July—the last day before the recess—is frankly not a comfortable position to be in.

I understand why the Ministry of Defence did not wish to make an announcement during the period of purdah for the Scottish elections. When the right hon. and learned Member for North East Fife had a debate in the House on RAF Leuchars in January, the Minister of State made it clear that he did not wish to do anything that might upset the election results—I should point out to him that putting that decision off did not do the Lib Dems much good in North East Fife. However, we are now well past the Scottish elections. There is no particular reason why the Government could not come to the House now and announce the decisions that we know they have made.

The purpose of my new clause is to ensure parliamentary oversight of the decisions made by the Ministry of Defence. As I said earlier, we are talking about a unique set of closures. We have probably not seen anything like it since the days when Denis Healey was a Minister for the armed forces and we reconfigured and abandoned our positions east of Aden. Now, however, the decisions are being driven entirely by the Treasury.

The purpose of new clause 1, which thankfully I will not read into the record, is not to affect the way in which the Ministry of Defence gathers information. It does not seek to make the process more transparent or, as the Minister said earlier, to tie the hands of the Government so that they cannot carry out these processes. The new clause proposes that, once the Ministry of Defence has determined which bases it wants to close or realign—for example, by switching their use from the Royal Air Force to the Army, or, as we read in Scotland on Sunday at the weekend, by switching the Condor base in Arbroath from the Royal Marines to the Army—the decisions would be subject to two conditions. First, the Secretary of State would be required to lay a report before the House setting out not only his rationale for making the decisions but the weighting he has given.

Those colleagues who have attended the Adjournment debates on these matters here and in Westminster Hall will have noticed that there has been inconsistency between the views expressed by the various Ministers in the Ministry of Defence about what weighting is being given to each of the criteria: the Secretary of State, the Minister of State and the other Under-Secretary of State—he is the Minister for aviation, as far as I can tell—seem to have different views. One Minister will tell us that the finances are paramount; another will say that defence needs come first; yet another will tell us that the RAF’s needs are the most important, while another says that the Army’s needs are the priority. Then we get back to the arguments about the socio-economic arguments and the wider impacts of the decisions that the hon. Member for Moray (Angus Robertson) has mentioned. Those are all valid arguments, and the Ministry is right to consider the socio-economic factors, the financial costs to the Treasury and how best a base can be recycled for use by another service. However, that all needs to be done in a transparent and coherent manner.

[Mr Dodds]

The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful case. He referred earlier to the unique context in which he is proposing his new clause. Does he not regret the fact that a Bill such as this was never introduced under the Labour Government? We have suffered base closures in Northern Ireland that had a serious impact on the local communities, yet none of these considerations was discussed at the time, despite the best efforts of some of us to point out the consequences. I know that the hon. Gentleman cannot go back in time, but will he acknowledge that that is the case?

[Thomas Docherty]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention; I know that he takes a keen interest in the armed forces. He is right to say that the previous Government did not get everything right, but I am not sure whether a Bill was ever introduced to put this process on to a statutory footing. I think that the idea is relatively new. I first came across it when, as part of the British-American Parliamentary Group, I visited the Pentagon last September. The process was explained to the delegation at that time; I think that it has been in place there for about 18 years. It is possible, therefore, that previous Governments were not fully au fait with how the system has worked in America, and that could be why we have not had this debate before. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will acknowledge that the closures that took place in Northern Ireland were, thankfully, driven by the peace process and by the leadership of the then Prime Minister and members of parties that are present today. That is obviously different from the situation today, in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is calling the shots—please pardon the pun—on the Ministry of Defence.

Under the new clause, the Secretary of State would compile a report setting out what weight he was giving to each of the criteria, which might be quite mixed. Having had a chance to review the report, a future Defence Select Committee might wish to invite the Secretary of State to appear before it and to scrutinise it, although I cannot bind any such Committee to do so. The report would then be subject to a straight-up-and-down vote in the House. There would not be an option to cherry-pick individual bases; it would be a straight-up-and-down report, as they have in the United States. If the House really felt that the Government had got it wrong, it would send the matter back and ask the Government to reconsider.

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Debate between Thomas Docherty and Lord Dodds of Duncairn

Tuesday 12th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP)]

I am grateful to you, Mr Hoyle, for the opportunity to speak in this debate. I say “debate”, but until the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles) spoke, it was not much of a debate, but more of a monologue: every speaker, apart from the Minister, had the same opinion in support of the amendments that would move the date of the referendum from the date scheduled in the legislation.

The hon. Gentleman talked eloquently about the people, and politicians, talking to each other. I have no doubt that none of this debate this afternoon and evening will get any coverage at all anywhere in the main news media. I doubt very much whether it will get any coverage in the press tomorrow. Frankly, people are not interested in the subject. That is the reality. If we were really honest about it and were following a new agenda and new politics, we would be saying that what we are discussing is not on people’s minds at all: they are far more interested in the economy, jobs and the wars going on, with soldiers dying and all the rest of it. They are not interested in our spending days upon days debating this subject, which is of interest only to certain politicians in certain parties.

[Thomas Docherty]

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that the issue of electoral reform does not excite interest. However, I can certainly say that Scottish newspapers have followed with interest—indeed, anger—the fact that the Government will not listen to the devolved Administrations around the United Kingdom.

[Mr Dodds]

I take the hon. Gentleman’s point. He spoke at length about his own amendment. Of course people in the devolved regions are concerned about the impact, on their elections and their issues of concern, of having this referendum question imposed on them without any consultation. The respect agenda has been mentioned over and over again, and the fact that there was no consultation with the devolved Administrations or the elected representatives of the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is an indictment of the Prime Minister’s and Deputy Prime Minister’s approach to the subject.

We are debating this matter today, and tomorrow we will debate the increase in the EU’s budget. Many people outside will say, “What on earth is going on in Parliament?” Today we are debating a subject that is of no interest to people given the current challenges, whereas tomorrow we will vote on giving the EU more money despite the 25% cuts in the budgets of mainstream Departments in the United Kingdom. People have a right to ask why there is a disconnect between the people’s priorities and the politicians’ priorities—or perhaps I should say the Government’s priorities. So far, since they came to power, the main focus of the Government’s legislative programme has been to rush ahead with fundamental constitutional changes and major changes to our political process and our democratic way of working in Parliament and in this country, without any of the normal conventions having been followed. There has been no pre-legislative scrutiny of major legislation, which is deeply disquieting when we consider the future of this place.