Finance Bill

I do not want the hon. Lady to misrepresent my position, because I am an ally of hers and it would be a great shame if she thought there was political advantage in pretending otherwise. Both she and I are trying to persuade the Government that it is unreasonable to have a system that charges people more in tax to fly a shorter distance. That is what we are saying, while the Government propose that people should pay more in tax to fly to the Caribbean than they should to fly to San Diego or Los Angeles. I think that that is a bad system and I have made that completely clear. My understanding is that the hon. Lady agrees that it would be better if we based the system on measuring the distance of each flight and taxed either per flight or had a banding system that took each individual flight into account rather than the distance from London to the country's capital city. I venture to suggest that unless the system is extremely complicated, the tax levels for Florida would be the same as for the Caribbean islands, which the hon. Lady would agree to be a fairer system. I conclude with this parting shot—I very much hope that the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Fulham presses the matter to a Division. The case is clear cut and there is a genuine grievance, which has been articulated by the hon. Member for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush (Mr. Slaughter). I anticipate that he will vote with me, my hon. Friends and Conservative Members to try to make the Government think again. The case has also been articulated by the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington, who I also anticipate will join us in the Aye Lobby to ensure that the Government are made to understand that this is a great grievance for many people. We need to come up with a system that takes account of the environmental consequences of aviation but does not at the same time create unfair anomalies that penalise our constituents.