Finance (No. 3) Bill

It is, but the islands derogation has been brought in as a sop to the Liberal Democrats. They have to get something out of this coalition, after all, and a few pence off fuel may well help them at the ballot box, but I doubt it in the long term. The hon. Gentleman makes a fair point that, if we are to assess the effect of the increase, regional variations will need to be considered. As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for York Central, the measure was clearly a political gimmick by the Chancellor, who thought that somehow he was the motorist's friend, but a 1p decrease will have no effect on most households' budgets, when they are affected by other prices going up—some of which have been mentioned already—in terms of the cost of living. The other point that needs looking at, and which my hon. Friend the Member for Gateshead (Ian Mearns) made very eloquently, is the cost of fuel for hauliers. There is a disproportionate effect on the north-east, and if any review were to be undertaken that would be an important one, because that cost sends the price of goods up. The point that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) made about Northern Ireland could also be considered in any assessment. The Government clearly do not want to go anywhere near the idea, however, because they realise that it will open a can of worms. I include not just this Government in that, but other Governments as well. It is time, however, that we took an overall look at how we tax fuel to ensure that we understand why fuel prices increase, the tax-take and how it impacts on the economies of certain areas and on individuals' economies—on individual families and their household expenditure. At a time when the Government are providing a tax giveaway to the banks of more than £100 million by reducing corporation tax, many hard-working families who are struggling to fill up their family car will find it unacceptable and unbelievable that they are being asked to shoulder a bigger proportion of the tax-take than those bankers, and the Government need to take that point into account. The Government should support this amendment, which would allow us to address all the issues that have been raised in tonight's debate, including the important points that were made by my hon. Friend the Member for York Central, who takes a great interest in green issues. I just hope that we can somehow persuade the Government, if not tonight then in the future and, possibly, with some cross-party support, to change the way in which we tax fuel to ensure that regions such as mine are not disadvantaged by arbitrary taxation increases, which this Government have imposed by increasing VAT.