Finance Bill

I want to limit my comments to new clause 1, which the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) tabled, and amendment 37, which I tabled. The common theme that links them is the desire of my party and others to help people on low incomes have a higher standard of living and be more self-reliant and less dependent on the state. Let me begin with the 10p rate. Members who have perhaps followed matters in less detail than those of us who served on the Committee must cast their minds back to 21 March 2007—nearly two and a half years ago—when the Prime Minister delivered his final Budget speech as Chancellor of the Exchequer. I remember it well because he stood at the Dispatch Box and announced, with great fanfare, the change that we are still discussing more than two years later. I remember Labour Members celebrating with abandon, waving their Order Papers and regarding the speech as a triumph. They left the Chamber in one big phalanx to go to the Tea Room, or wherever they took themselves. They did not want to listen to the comments of politicians from other parties and were confident that the soon-to-be Prime Minister had devised a master plan, which would improve the lives of their constituents. I suspect that the perception that it might ensure a fourth consecutive general election victory for the Labour party also contributed to their misplaced euphoria.