Finance Bill

I thank the shadow Chief Secretary for his intervention, but an £8 billion bill does not necessarily fall on the poorest pensioners, and I would be very concerned if it fell solely on them. It is absurd to put pensioners into a generalised pot and pretend that VAT is going to hit all of them harshly. I am sure that the Duchess of Devonshire—she may well be a constituent of one of my colleagues—is well able to bear an increase in the rate of VAT on some of her conspicuous and discretionary expenditure.