Finance Bill

I am not an economist, and I am sometimes quite glad that I am not, but I see things in a common-sense way. I find it incredible that we should not pass a measure asking the Government to find a solution to the problems of the 1.3 million people who have been so badly hit. The Government have had months and months in which to sort those problems out. It is not up to the official Opposition, the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National party or my right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead to come up with a solution. The Government could have come up with a solution, but they chose not to. They thought that the problem had gone away, but the fact that we are not all still receiving hundreds of letters about the issue does not mean that it has gone away. Most of my constituents who have suffered have almost given up, believing that the Government will not listen. A woman wrote to me saying:""I am 58, female, single and childless. I am currently on a low income and, sadly, may remain in this situation—employment possibilities for people of my age being what they are… I do not wish to be well-off but aspire to living independently and with dignity, which will mean continuing to earn whatever I can for as long as I possibly can. Believing in personal responsibility, I have managed to save some money to provide a meagre supplement to what will be an insufficient pension… I am one of those who will fall foul of this iniquitous new measure"" on the 10 per cent. tax band.""I cannot believe that this has been brought in by a Labour government and particularly by our current PM. For the whole of my life I have voted Labour… I am so astonished at this measure … I cannot express strongly enough my outrage towards my Labour government that such an attack should be made on low earners like me, young or old."" I have received a number of similar letters, and I am sure that all Members were being visited by their constituents months ago. However, people have become fed up with going on and on about the issue, because they feel that the Government are not listening. Tonight's debate gives us all an opportunity to say that the problem must be solved, and could be solved. I hope that if my right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead presses his motion to a Division and the new clause is accepted, the Government will sit up all night and, indeed, for the next 24 hours. We have until 5 August in any event, and there is no huge impetus for the problem to be solved in the next 24 hours, but it could be none the less. Let us sort the problem out. Let us show that we realise that the poorest people in our country are being hit and that that was a mistake, or, if not a mistake, the wrong decision. Let us show that we want to change it—and the only time when we can change it is tonight.