Finance Bill

Let me return to that theme in my concluding remarks, because that is an interesting observation. As I have said, not only will the Government lose revenue when clubs close, but we should remember just how small the sums involved are. It has rightly been said that the total sums of money gambled on bingo are not great, so in the grand scheme of things the percentage tax take is not very significant. I am told that Mecca Bingo generates profits of only about £150 million a year. Therefore, the additional tax in respect of the differential between the rate that the Government have set and the figure that would be generated were bingo taxed in line with other forms of gambling is only a matter of a few million pounds a year. When one sets that against the backdrop of a public sector deficit this year of £175,000 million, it seems hard to argue that if the motivation behind this tax proposal is to plug the public finances, the Government will get very far using that particular plug. Let us also consider the wider social costs. Although it is hard to measure those in absolute terms, I have observed—as, I am sure, have other Members—that many people who visit bingo clubs do not have many other social opportunities.The clubs provide those people with all kinds of support that they might not otherwise receive, and it might cost to provide such support in another form. Most people would regard bingo as the safest and most benign form of gambling, and it is extraordinary that the Government should have got themselves on this hook. The point made by the right hon. Member for Suffolk, Coastal is surely the relevant political one for the Exchequer Secretary to consider. She must think about the sheer staggering ineptitude involved in a Chancellor, and a Department and its officials, not seeing this massive problem coming down the track. I do not blame her, because she was not at the Treasury at the time, but when she arrived and was given this brief she must have thought, "How on earth did the Labour party manage to get itself in a position where it is taxing bingo at a higher rate than other forms of gambling just before a general election?" If I were in her shoes, I would be appalled that I had been given such an impossible hand to play as a Minister and I would wonder whether my Government had completely lost their survival instinct. If there is one theme running through this Finance Bill, it is that the Government seem to have had an unerring ability to identify groups in society that might be inclined to support the Labour party and to punish them with higher tax. It is no wonder that very few people now vote for the Labour party in elections, because it seems to be systematically trying to pick those people off and give them reasons to vote for other parties. Unless the Minister is able to respond to the concerns raised by her Labour colleagues and by Opposition Members, it will be no surprise if bingo players across the country draw the obvious conclusion, which is that the Labour party is no longer interested in having their support.