Age-Related Payments Bill
9:25 am
Mr Nigel Waterson (Shadow Minister, Economic Affairs; Eastbourne, Conservative)
I also welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Conway, and, in due course, your colleague, Mr. Pike. The Bill is short. It is good to see the old firm reunited after our discussions on the Pensions Bill a short time ago. I told my agent that I was not willing to debate Bills with fewer than 300 clauses, so the Bill under discussion today is a bit of a come down for me. I am reflecting on what to do with the four volumes of the Committee Hansard report that landed on my desk yesterday.
The Bill is interesting and there is much technical detail that we still want to drag out of the Minister. Incidentally, now that he has had chance to reflect on matters since the Bill was discussed on Second Reading and consult his diary, we are keen to find out whether he learned about the proposal at the same time as the rest of the nation, which was during the Budget speech. As the Committee will have gathered, the Bill has all the hallmarks of panic, hurried legislation. One thing that the Minister and I agree on is that the Bill has a clear and simple objective. Sadly, however, we do not agree about what that is.
The Bill's clear and simple objective is to save the Government's electoral bacon. From my canvassing and my visit to the pensioners' parliament in Blackpool a few days ago, I can assure the hon. Gentleman that that is not working. It is welcome that he is shoving half a billion pounds in the direction of those who are over 70. They will raise a glass to him, but I doubt whether it will gain a single vote or draw attention away from the enormous increase in council tax throughout the country, especially in the south, since the Government came to power. However, we can return to such issues in Committee. I am content with the programme motion and it is now time to get on with the Bill.