Finance Bill

As the Minister said, the Bill extends the temporary VAT cut. He suggested that there was evidence that it is working. Even now, at the stage of this short Third Reading debate, there is still extraordinary denial. The temporary VAT cut will protect fewer than half the number of jobs that the same amount of money would have protected had it gone into direct capital investment. The tragedy is that with debt approaching £1.6 trillion, with net investment due to fall from £44 billion to £22 billion and with employment rising—we have seen the largest-ever single monthly rise this year—all that we are seeing is tinkering around the edges. I will not detain the House further, but I agree with the other Front-Bench spokesmen that this is a Bill from a Government who have clearly hit the buffers. Question put and agreed to. Bill accordingly read the Third time and passed.