Clause 19. — (Capital Gains Tax.)

Part of Orders of the Day — FINANCE (No. 2) BILL – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 May 1965.

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Photo of Mr James Callaghan Mr James Callaghan The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee 12:00, 25 May 1965

I agree with the right hon. Member for Bexley (Mr. Heath) that we have all done a hard day's work. I have listened to the debate without taking much part in it, but in my opinion those hon. Members who have taken part in it have made constructive speeches. Whether ten different Members making the same constructive speech is ten times as constructive as one constructive speech made by one Member is not for me to say, but certainly all the speeches have been constructive in that sense.

Despite all the hard work that has gone into our discussions, however, I cannot say that without a little more effort it would not be possible to get a few more Clauses. Last night the right hon. Gentleman—[Interruption.] I would not say that that sneeze from the right hon. and learned Member for St. Marylebone (Mr. Hogg) was the most intelligent speech that he has made, but it was certainly very close to it. The right hon. Member for Bexley told us last night how eager he was to hear about some of the concessions that my hon. Friend wishes to make on some of the later Clauses, and he was apparently willing to go through. If we take this opportunity we shall be able to get to some of those Clauses and the Committee will be better instructed on some of the points in respect of which my hon. Friend, in the light of his consideration of the Amendments which have been put down, wishes to make some alterations in the Bill.

If we apply ourselves constructively to our work, as we have done so far today, this should be possible. We have had a long debate on this Clause—six hours, including our discussions of the Amendments—and I need not multiply the number of Clauses in the Bill by 6 to find out what the answer will be. I believe that we ought to make progress tonight with some of the other Clauses and get a little further on before we finally conclude the proceedings for the day.