I shall set out our position clearly: we do not think that the EU variant of the FTT is optimal. Of course it should be improved. We think there are better ways to design these things and I shall come to many of the arguments in a moment. I am delighted that the Liberal Democrats—well, the one Liberal Democrat who is in the Chamber—support the principle of a financial transaction tax. That is exactly why we phrased the amendment in the way that we did.
Let me read the amendment out so that the hon. Member for Bristol West (Stephen Williams) can consider it carefully, because I am minded to test the House’s opinion on it. We are calling
“on the Government to support the principle of an FTT”—
so far, so good—
“to learn lessons from the EU proposal”,
which, of course, we have to do, and to
“work with other global financial centres, especially the US”,
as clearly New York is central,
“to reach a consensus on a design set at a modest rate without creating negative economic consequences and which minimises international tax arbitrage”.
I am quite sure that in his heart of hearts the hon. Gentleman does not disagree with a single word of that.