Finance Bill

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Browne). As he made many of the points that I wished to make, I shall not repeat them. This is one of those occasions when, if every hon. Member had been here listening to the debate, rather than some of them hiding in their rooms, they would have supported the amendments proposed by those on both sides of the House. I have been sitting here waiting to speak for a while, and one of the pleasures has been imagining the hon. Member for Stockton, South (Ms Taylor), who made such a thoughtful speech, calling "Legs 11" and "Two fat ladies". I really do not think that she could have been bad at that—but I digress. My right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer) made a powerful speech, and I agree entirely with him that the reason why we came into this House was to support the people in our society who are not well off, and who are vulnerable. Members on both sides of the House do that, but I have always believed that the Tory party has stood up for those people. I will be able to show again that we stand up for those people by supporting the amendments tonight. I wish to discuss the Flutters bingo club in the centre of Rushden, the second biggest town in my constituency. Everyone who turns down the high street to go to the post office or Barclays bank has to go past Flutters—the building is an old cinema—and people who pass by will always be struck by the happiness of the people going in and out of the club. It is a social club as much as a gambling one, and we certainly do not wish to lose such a facility in my constituency. Unemployment in Wellingborough has risen by 84 per cent. since Labour came to power, and I do not want any more people to lose their jobs. The arguments that I wish to put forward tonight have been submitted to me by the director and the owner of the Flutters club. The club is not a big concern; it is not part of Mecca bingo or some such organisation. This family have been in the business since 1982 and I believe that they run three small bingo clubs, of which the biggest is the Flutters club in Rushden. I am very much looking forward to going to it at 2.15 pm on Friday. Now I am worried that I shall be asked to call "Legs 11" and "Two fat ladies"; we shall see. The club's regulars are there to socialise, and not really to gamble. The owners see them as part of the family. The club has already been hit by decisions that Parliament has made. The smoking ban, introduced in July 2007, damaged business, but it was supported by the owners of the club. They do not smoke, and they thought that the ban was right for the health of customers and staff. It has also been hit by online bingo. The owners hoped that the Government would not make their life more difficult, but, they say:""new licensing laws, bureaucracy, and the punitive tax system kept piling on difficulties."" The owners point out that just as they saw the light at the end of the tunnel, with the Government seeming to recognise that double taxation was wrong and bingo clubs should be treated in the same way as other gambling establishments, along came the proposal to increase the gross profits tax. Hon. Members may think that the GPT is a tax on the profits of a club, but it is not; it is a tax on turnover. Whether a club makes any profit or not, it still has to pay tax on the gross. It may appear that removing the VAT liability is a benefit for the club, but it will no longer be able to claim back input VAT. The Flutters club is falling a little into disrepair. The owners would like to refurbish, but they have had to put their plans off, because they will no longer be able to claim back the VAT. As their letter says, the owners would have been better off if VAT had been kept, at 17.5 per cent., and the GPT done away with. As the owners say, the increase in GPT beggars belief. Although they want to continue the club, the danger is that they will have to close if things continue to get worse. Some 20 people would lose their jobs.