Finance Bill

Various suggestions are being bandied about. I do not consider it my responsibility to be prescriptive about the solution that the Government should adopt. They dug the hole, and they can jolly well get themselves out of it. What we have a responsibility to do is ensure that the Government stick to the promise that they made to the right hon. Gentleman in the Committee of the whole House and present proposals at the time of the pre-Budget report—as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury has already suggested that they will—to deal with the issue in terms that fulfil that promise. That is the obligation that we must enforce, and that, I think, is the mood throughout the House.