Finance Bill

I shall be brief, which I think will be found merciful. Let me first, however, comment on the great Liberal lion that roared and roared this afternoon. I thought that at any moment there would be some great proposals to help the lowest paid—such as we would have hoped for and expected from Lloyd George—but what happened? A dribble came out about bookkeeping arrangements and offering transparency. They are not unimportant considerations, but this debate is about how we can help the poorest workers in our society, and on that matter the Liberal Democrats spokesman managed, under great prompting from Labour Members, to devote two minutes of his time and had no proposals on the amendment paper that offered any hope. I rise to speak in favour of new clause 20. I come to praise the Government, but also, as gently as possible, to leave a warning with my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary. I do not intend to rewrite the history, as some have been trying to do, of the events leading up to the Government's additional Budget measures to compensate most of those who lost out from the abolition of the 10p rate. All I wish to say to the Government is that although many of the leadership thought that I was running some sort of campaign, I do not think that we sent out even two e-mails on the issue. Labour Back Benchers responded instinctively on this issue. There was real anger felt that, for whatever reason—through oversight or by design—the burden of the Budget should fall on the very poorest. It was that anger that led to the Government's statement. We should all remember that when the negotiations were going on, we all thought that the Government would say nothing until November. The Government brought forward what we intended to be only part of the measures of compensation. All of us were content at that stage—I certainly was—that we would not see anything until November. The Chancellor of the Exchequer sent my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (John McFall) off with his Committee to inquire into the matter and bring back proposals. The Chancellor would then come to the House with a set of measures to compensate those who had lost out. Let us remember the lead-up to this debate: none of us expected the Government to do anything until November. The Government have given details of many of their plans that will come into force in September. We do not think that they go far enough, but we should praise the Government for what they have done.