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Health and Social Care Bill
8:30 pm
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman is wrong. I made it clear that the clause, as we have drafted it, does not involve a list of tasks. That is clear to anyone who reads the clause.
The point before us fundamental. Amendments Nos. 301 and 303, to which the hon. Gentleman attached great importance, go right to the quick. They are intended to provide universal free personal care. I will not quibble about the wording of the amendments, which would be a pointless waste of everyone's time. However, the issue of whether personal care should be universally free is complex, and we cannot achieve free care without making difficult choices about public expenditure in other areas.
The hon. Gentleman will not like my next point either, but Liberal Democrats do not make hard choices. They want what we are spending, and then they want more. They offer vague and, in this case, rather absurd methods of funding spending. The official Liberal Democrat health spokesman told us yesterday that the Liberal Democrats plan to fund the initiative by increasing the top rate of income tax, and that has been confirmed again tonight. Are those who pay that not the very people who will benefit from free personal care? [Laughter.] Well, that takes us the hub of the issue. Those who are currently means-tested will get their free personal care, but they will pay more taxes in order to receive it. At some point the hon. Gentleman and his friends must explain how that in any sense represents a benefit for those at the top rate of income tax.