Finance (No. 3) Bill

I want to make a bit more progress. The Government have made their case, and have defended it. I am simply asking them to consider the real and legitimate concerns of the industry, to look at the independent assessments, and to accept that there is a danger of losing as much as £20 billion of investment and between 1 billion and 2 billion barrels of production over the next 10 years or so. That is a Forties field that we would simply discard. It would be a huge loss, and it would be very significant in the context of the British economy. If that investment is lost—or, indeed, secured—future jobs, export opportunities, reduced imports and future tax revenues will be affected. They all hang on the restoration of that trust, and on the industry's being persuaded to invest in the marginal projects that might be put at risk in the absence of negotiation.