Finance (No. 3) Bill

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

I will make a little progress.

What does this history teach us? Is it that that Marxism pro...

My right hon. Friend may not have read “Economics for the Many” by the shadow Chancellor, but he ...

My hon. Friend is entirely right. Of course, it is easy to make pledges when in opposition. Indee...

Will the Minister confirm the total cost to the Exchequer of corporate tax reliefs in the last fi...

What I can confirm to the House is that in reducing corporation tax from 28% to 19% since 2010, w...

I thank my right hon. Friend for making that important point. Does it not underline the fact that...

My hon. Friend is entirely right; there is no doubt that if you keep on putting up taxes, as Labo...

My right hon. Friend is an excellent Minister, knocking on the door of the Cabinet, so I am sure ...

I can assure my hon. Friend that we are indeed reducing government debt. The Office for Budget Re...

The Conservative party came to power in 2010 promising to eliminate the deficit by 2015. Not only...

The hon. Lady will know that the deficit was up at about 10%—£150 billion a year—at the time we i...

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that this means there will be a tax cut for the lowest earners ...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; a large proportion of the tax cut that has been delivered is ...

Will the Minister also confirm that this Government are raising the living wage—the national livi...

My hon. Friend characteristically makes an important and insightful point. The national living wa...

Perhaps I can amplify the Financial Secretary’s point about the minimum wage. Since 2010, the nat...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Labour party will tax and tax, borrow and borrow and spen...

In the third quarter, the UK rate of growth was three times the rate of growth in the eurozone. I...

That is the wonders of the management and proper stewardship of the economy. It is about taking a...

Does that not underline the fact that we can have strong public services and strong investment in...

My hon. Friend is entirely right. Let us take employment: in this country we have a near record l...

What the Financial Secretary has neglected to mention but the Treasury Committee has heard clearl...

Hopefully, the hon. Gentleman will welcome the announcement that the Chancellor made in the Budge...

Does the Financial Secretary agree that were we to go back to the situation in 2010, when people ...

My hon. Friend is right. The problem with Labour’s approach to taxation, and to personal taxation...

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, for somebody on the minimum wage, if we combine the incre...

Actually, we set out our tax policies in “Funding Britain’s Future”, and I will send a signed cop...

The whole House understands that the hon. Gentleman is very enthusiastic about raising the rates ...

International evidence does not show that, but let me give the hon. Gentleman a figure. The top 1...

What I do not understand—if the hon. Gentleman really believes this—is why, for 99.3% of the time...

A Conservative Member of Parliament talking about opportunism! It is not quite as bad as the Libe...

According to the economist David Smith, if Labour policies at the last election had been implemen...

In the context of a fair taxation system, as set out in “Funding Britain’s Future”—which, again, ...

Does my hon. Friend agree that a response to the Taylor review would be the start of something re...

I refer my hon. Friend to the response given by the Minister earlier. We are prepared to look at ...

The shadow Minister just said that the Bill is light on content, but it is 315 pages long. I have...

What is the hon. Lady missing? A great deal, I would contend.

The hon. Gentleman talks about the policy on tax collection, so surely he will welcome the Govern...

They have been so successful that the Government have only used them once.

The Bill might be thick, but it is low on content when it comes to public sector funding for publ...

My hon. Friend, who is a great advocate for his constituency, is spot on. Some 4.5 million childr...

The hon. Gentleman just talked about spurious rhetoric, but I want to take him back to what he sa...

Investment in renewables is down. The idea that the Government are green is itself green—it is a ...

I have declared my business interests in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

In t...

Does my right hon. Friend also recognise that the idea that people on the higher rate of tax are ...

That is right. Many people who have been relatively successful and got to more senior positions a...

I cannot wait until half-past nine when I get to wind up the debate. I say again: causation and c...

We disagree.

Let us take another tax where very clearly a lower rate has produced a lot mor...

Germany has started to row back and introduce “clean diesel”.

Indeed. Modern diesel engines are much cleaner, and are comparable to petrol engines. The Governm...

Personally, I consider stamp duty to be daylight robbery. The Government do nothing for it; they ...

I agree. I do not think we will reach the happy position that my hon. Friend and I would like to ...

The right hon. Gentleman has referred to “the right home in the right place”. Does he not agree t...

We want more housing for more people. There are people who need homes, and I am very much in favo...

It is great to be back here, speaking in another Finance Bill debate—especially when we know that...

Does the hon. Lady agree that the delay in introducing the cut to the maximum stake on fixed odds...

I agree with the hon. Lady. There is a clear health impact to lowering the stakes. Making the cha...

I am very clearly on the record as having supported changing the tariff that people can spend on ...

Order. Mr Graham, you have been here long enough to know that we have short interventions; you do...

I should say that I am not from the Labour party. The Government’s reasoning for the delay is wha...

My hon. Friend correctly said that we have not seen an oil and gas sector deal. Is that not disgr...

The sooner that deal can be announced and that commitment can be made by the UK Government, the b...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

Not just now. In terms of the economic growth forecasts that the OBR has apparently made—

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I am not taking any more interventions.

The OBR has made economic growth forecasts on the b...

Order. We have 29 Members wishing to speak. There is no time limit, but Members should remember t...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Aberdeen North (Kirsty Blackman).

I welcome ...

The hon. Gentleman mentions entrepreneurs. He will be aware that universal credit ends after one ...

In 2017, we had a record number of start-ups in this country, with 660,000 new businesses, up fro...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent point. Does he agree that the whole point about being an en...

My hon. Friend makes a characteristically powerful point. I know that he is an entrepreneur who h...

When the hon. Gentleman says, “despite the pressure in our public services,” does that mean he th...

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. I actually said that it was despite the pressures on ...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the slashing by one third of business rates for small businesses, ...

I welcome my hon. Friend’s intervention. He is absolutely right that small businesses in his Alde...

I am glad to see that those on the Government Benches have stopped making fun of our SNP colleagu...

My hon. Friend has mentioned empty homes. Does she agree that it is a national disgrace that ther...

I do agree. There are 151 households, many of whom I see, and many of them are experiencing deter...

It is a great pleasure to speak in this debate. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury got it ri...

It was a choice.

The hon. Gentleman says that it was a choice, but it was not. We simply cannot go on spending way...

The hon. Gentleman believes that universal credit is fully funded, but has he seen the evidence f...

When we introduce any new system that involves 5 million recipients, there will inevitably be som...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the people on universal credit in my constituency who are havi...

The growth in the use of food banks is of course a phenomenon that we have seen across western Eu...

I am listening carefully to the hon. Gentleman, but he does not seem to be aware that many of the...

I realise that many people on universal credit are working. It is, by definition, an in-work bene...

I wish to say a few words in support of the amendment in my name, about the economic context and ...

I have been looking at the Red Book while the right hon. Gentleman has been speaking. He asked tw...

I think there are separate sets of figures, but I thank the hon. Gentleman for his clarification....

Last year’s Red Book explicitly mentioned the impact of immigration and population change on publ...

Yes. All the evidence we have shows that net migration has had a positive effect not only on the ...

The right hon. Gentleman spoke earlier about cross-party consensus on social care. Is he aware of...

That was at the heart of the Dilnot proposals that Lib Dem Ministers sponsored and supported in g...

Has the right hon. Gentleman thought about the effect of fiscal drag on productivity? The fact is...

It is a good policy, in general, to eliminate fiscal drag, and the Government should do that. But...

It is an honour to follow the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Sir Vince Cable), who had governm...

The hon. Gentleman just referred to senior nurses. I was a nurse some 18 months ago. I was part-t...

I thank the hon. Lady for the intervention. I think she will be well aware that many people in th...

The hon. Gentleman needs to be careful with this argument, which I have heard expressed before. I...

It is interesting that the hon. Gentleman talks about “tax avoidance” because there is no tax avo...

Is the hon. Gentleman seriously suggesting that people in Scotland should register themselves in ...

As my colleagues are saying from a sedentary position, these people are being driven away. The ac...

Why does my hon. Friend feel that the SNP Government in Scotland are so against aspiration?

I do not know and I really cannot understand it. Now that the Scottish Government are getting tax...

Am I hearing the hon. Gentleman right? Is he completely ignoring the some 100,000 small businesse...

I remind the hon. Gentleman that businesses in the north-east of Scotland—large employers there—a...

Evidence it—

I shall carry on speaking to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, rather than to the hon. Gentleman, who speak...

rose —

I will give way, as the hon. Gentleman has got back up again.

I am keen to see how the hon. Gentleman provides evidence to support these accusations that peopl...

I could recommend to the hon. Gentleman that he reads the famous The Press and Journal, which I w...

Opposition Members ask for evidence; the evidence is the Michelin factory in Dundee, which has ha...

That must be of enormous importance to the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Straths...

I wish to focus on two main issues that have already been mentioned by quite a few Members. The c...

What a pleasure it is follow the hon. Member for Warrington South (Faisal Rashid), but I profound...

The hon. Gentleman talked about success. Unemployment may be falling, but in-work poverty is risi...

Income inequality is declining. Any poverty is, of course, something that we want to address, but...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that, to recruit enough nurses to fill all those vacancies and all ...

It is critically important that we do not have a cap for those people who want to become nurses. ...

I rise to speak today to express my sheer frustration at the refusal of this Government to change...

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for letting me speak a bit earlier than I expected. It is a great p...

Does my hon. Friend agree that unemployment has such a crushing effect on self-esteem and self-wo...

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention—that is absolutely true. If someone is unemployed for...

Living standards in this country are a national disgrace. The “little extras” Budget did nothing ...

It is a great pleasure to speak in this debate not only to support the Bill, but to associate mys...

I am sorry the hon. Gentleman is having to get used to speaking from the Back Benches again, afte...

As is being said from a sedentary position behind me, I think the total amount of money by which ...

If we do get this wonderful Aberdeenshire produce—it is the best in the world, I would suggest—on...

The hon. Lady has no faith in this Government to deliver a deal that is going to result in fricti...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie). ...

I recognise the passion with which the hon. Gentleman approaches this subject, but perhaps he can...

I have just given some examples of how broken the UK social security system is. If the hon. Gentl...

The hon. Member for Stirling (Stephen Kerr) is clearly unaware that there are 4,000 people, not 4...

My hon. Friend is quite right. Conservative Members try to divide people on the basis that Conser...

I held a debate recently in Westminster Hall about split payments, and I asked the Minister answe...

I thank the hon. Lady for that, because the point is well made. I was at the Westminster Hall deb...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Not at the moment.

We have heard warm words about rising wages from those on the Government...

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. The hon. Gentleman is making comment on the speech giv...

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s point, but it is a point of debate, not a point of order for th...

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker. Hon. Members can read Hansard tomorrow and come to the...

My hon. Friend makes an absolutely fascinating point about the Conservatives calling for the rich...

My hon. Friend makes a fascinating observation, but I think he will be disappointed by the respon...

To be clear, my hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Colin Clark) did not ever, at any time, sugges...

I am not sure whether that was an intervention or a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Suffice...

It is a pleasure to speak on Second Reading.

After all the years of hard work since 2010, a...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton). This Finance...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate (Bambos Charalambous). Although...

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the work he does in the APPG on fair business banking. Many t...

My hon. Friend is right. Capitalism depends on a fair and level playing field, and that is not wh...

The hon. Gentleman knows that I share his view on this issue, and I commend his work as chair of ...

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. This will come sooner or later, and we should grasp this opportu...

I would like to raise two issues related to the Budget, one of them good news and one of them bad...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh), not least ...

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Walsall North (Eddie Hughes), although I so...

The hon. Gentleman is quite right. Reference has already been made to the KPMG report, which was ...

I was accused earlier by the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) of ...

I am sure the hon. Gentleman will join me in welcoming the commitment of the Department for Busin...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. Indeed, I do welcome the work at St Fergus. It p...

rose —

I will give way to the hon. Gentleman later.

This Government also continue to fail the youn...

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (...

I agree with the hon. Gentleman that properly funded universal credit and taking the lowest-paid ...

I am going to come on to that in one moment, but I will just finish this point.

When talkin...

I fear that the hon. Gentleman is misrepresenting what I said. I did not say that the Government ...

The hon. Gentleman seems to be muddled: is he a tax raiser or a tax cutter? It seems to me that t...

If cutting taxes always brings in more revenue, how come every measure in the Red Book on cutting...

The hon. Gentleman actually makes a very fair point. The Treasury has a classic modelling system....

I am pleased to speak in support of the measures in the Bill. I have previously spoken of a numbe...

What does the hon. Gentleman say to the half of English taxpayers who would pay less tax if they ...

I take the hon. Lady’s point, but I understand that the saving she refers to is very modest to th...

Come to Inverness.

I am happy to join you.

Some 2.4 million households will keep an extra £630 of income per a...

The hon. Gentleman says that it is no longer a wicked system, but it is a wicked system for those...

The system is set, and it is what is affordable to the taxpayer. You have to plan your children a...

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that this benefit will apply to all children, regardless of when they...

I thank the hon. Lady very much for that intervention—I do not agree with what she says. It is a ...

Mr Speaker, thank you for letting me close today’s debate on the Finance Bill. The Bill represent...

Does the shadow Minister accept the Resolution Foundation’s analysis, published after the Budget,...

I have seen that analysis. The Resolution Foundation said that the cost is greater, so the questi...

I thank all right hon. and hon. Members across the House who have contributed to this wide-rangin...

I thank the Minister for giving way. If reducing corporation tax brings in more money, why has th...

I think I have already explained that the facts speak for themselves. Receipts from the reduction...

I very much welcome the money in the Budget for repairing potholes. Does the Minister agree that ...

I certainly do. Some Opposition Members were snobby about potholes, but those of us in the real w...

My hon. Friend, as usual, makes a very significant point, which is that by increasing the nationa...

Does the Minister agree that, as well as taking people out of tax, with a whole raft of policies ...

My hon. Friend is right. For the past six months, we have seen rising real wages, and the latest ...

I thank the Minister for giving way. Does he agree that abolition of certain restrictions in the ...

This debate is not the place to make pronouncements about the Taylor review. The Government are c...

Just on wages, there was a lack of clarity in the Budget in relation to the public sector pay cap...

As the hon. Gentleman will know, we have made, within this year, more finance available to variou...

I am sorry to burst the Minister’s balloon, but if things are as rosy as he says, why is the UK e...

I do not think that the hon. Gentleman is entirely right. I do not think that we are at the botto...

rose —

If there are no other interventions, I will take one from my hon. Friend for the third time.

I thank the Minister for my hat trick of interventions and for being so generous. I was looking a...

My hon. Friend is right: the Scottish National party will know that when it took the decision to ...

I support so much of this Budget, which was superb, with the cut in business rates and, especiall...

I thank my hon. Friend for that important intervention. I know what a doughty supporter he is of ...

I want to ask the Minister a technical question. Given that the digital companies’ turnover and, ...

As the hon. Gentleman will know, the scope of this tax is very clearly targeted on businesses tha...

Does my right hon. Friend agree with me that the growing tax gap between Scotland and the rest of...

My hon. Friend is right. If we look at some of the relieving measures on tax that have been provi...

The Minister’s colleagues in the Scottish Parliament stand up week in and week out to ask for mor...

I will tell the hon. Gentleman where some of the money comes from. I will tell him where £700 mil...

If the Minister is serious about introducing a digital services tax, why did he not just introduc...

Order. Can we not have these conversations across the Chamber at the other end of the Chamber? It...

The hon. Lady will know that we are a first mover: we are one of the first countries in the world...

Given that digital companies know no borders, does the Minister agree that, while we take this fi...

My hon. Friend is totally right. We have been in the vanguard of efforts conducted through the Eu...

The Financial Secretary may be going to touch on this, but I will ask him the question anyway. He...

We are investing hugely, and the evidence is there that we are succeeding. We have had a 43% redu...

On that point, the Government’s failure to introduce a latte levy on single-use disposable coffee...

What I mean by our environmental credentials in that area is that we are consulting, as the hon. ...

On that point, I was pleased to see in the Budget that there is money for the planting of million...

My hon. Friend is right to highlight that commitment, which will see 11 million trees planted as ...

I beg to move an amendment,

That this House declines to give the Finance (No. 3) Bill a Sec...

The hon. Gentleman mentions the reasoned amendment, which refers to the long-term funding of adul...

The hon. Gentleman needs to speak to his own Government about cross-party support. My party canno...

My hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) asked a very straightforward