House of Lords (Members’ Taxation Status) Bill [HL]

I was about to get to the third lot, which is of course Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory and British Indian Ocean Territory. As your Lordships will know, the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, introduced a proposal a few days ago that someone from Oeno, or I have forgotten what island, should be treated as a British citizen, because in the Indian Ocean other islands are occupied. The second list is a perfectly reasonable list of all those territories that are British Overseas Territories under the 2002 Act. The two together constitute Her Majesty's Territories. We should recognise that Her Majesty gives us our Letters Patent and our Writs of Summons. What does that mean and why are those territories important to us? Your Lordships should be aware that we as an island have little future unless we are international. With the balance of trade deficit in visibles of £100 billion, we must look back to where we traded historically and where we can create added value. Why are those people British citizens? It is because, historically, we traded with them and they were part of our empire. We forget that in these days of lack of resources and materials, we should take another look at the coastlines of the world and the territorial waters. Your Lordships will be aware that the Commonwealth has more coastline than any other territories in the world put together. You will have seen not so long ago in discussions on the marine Bill that on the map that shows where the territories are, 50 per cent between somewhere and somewhere else includes Rockall. If the Royal Marines had not got there and that British subject had not stuck a flag up, we would not have been able to claim the extraterritorial waters. I suggest that where we have a British territory, we should claim the territorial waters up to 50 per cent towards the mainland so that, with those islands, we would have substantial authority. After all, 92 per cent of all CO2 is absorbed by the sea, so there is a green element to this. That is not just a stupid idea. I wanted to identify what were British territories. Here, in an amendment to a Bill, they are all there. I have the details of all their populations; I have everything that your Lordships would expect me to know. Of the total of 221 countries in the world, the British are the most dominant in terms of potential area, although not necessarily in wealth. We come to the further grouping, which is Her Majesty's Realms. That started me off because of Australia, my family relationship with Australia and the letters that I have been receiving. They are writing a family history at the moment and asking, "What is all this attack on us?". Her Majesty's Realms are where the Queen is effectively head of state. They are not necessarily British subjects and therefore, in the amendment, I have stated, ""For the purposes of this Act, a member of the House of Lords who was born in any country of the Commonwealth"," should, ""be granted British citizenship"," but for those who are citizens of Her Majesty's Realms, they, ""may be granted British citizenship without surrendering the current citizenship of"" the country that they are from. That is perfectly reasonable. Having identified Her Majesty's Realms and all territories with which we are related and trade, we now come to the question of citizenship, passports and relationship. I will argue until the end of the day that your nationality is one of the first things that triggers anything related to tax: which passport do you have? Some amendments propose that those who go off and work for international agencies should not be taxed. This is the wrong way round. If you are British, you should pay tax in the country in which you are resident, and if you attend the House of Lords you should certainly be resident here for more than 90 days. Should your Lordships wish it, you would expect me to have a list of those who have not been here for more than 90 days. One of the obligations is regular attendance here and regular participation. If you look at the taxation related to where you are resident, you must also accept that people can be resident in other countries because they may live and work there as well and they may have dual nationality. They will also have dual tax requirements. In England, people must be resident for 90 days. In other countries, it may be 180 days or 120. It is a complete nightmare to harmonise, and where there are no double taxation agreements there will be a problem. Ordinary residency is also a very complicated issue, as I pointed out to the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott. You cannot just be deemed to be ordinarily resident; you are ordinarily resident once you have been back in England, if you have worked or been abroad. Noble Lords should realise that 12 million, or 15 million, British nationals live abroad. You are deemed to be ordinarily resident there after a period of time, but my principle is that if you are to be appointed a Member of the House of Lords, you will be here and will be taxed as a resident.