New Clause 9 - Subscriptions and deprivation of capital
Child Trust Funds Bill
3:00 pm
Mr George Osborne (Tatton, Conservative)
I join the Minister in my thanks to you, Mr. Amess, and to Mr. Benton, to the Clerks, the Hansard reporters, the Doorkeepers, the police and anyone else who I have forgotten. I particularly want to thank Conservative Members for their assiduous attendance throughout the sittings, and I thank the Minister for the way in which she has responded to many of the points that we have made.
This has been by far and away the most constructive Committee of which I have been a member. We have actually made some changes to the Bill. The Minister has always struck me as a brilliant example of someone who is a Blairite, who works for the Chancellor and who prays to the Home Secretary. She really has covered her bets in a brilliant way.
I also thank the hon. Member for Yeovil for the way in which he has conducted his contributions to the sittings, and for his co-operation in our voting together on several matters.
Just before we started the sittings, I read a quotation from the Minister in the Daily Mail—I know that it is one of the Treasury's favourite papers—that said:
''The Tories should be explaining why they want to scrap our child trust funds.''
I hope that we have shown that we do not oppose child trust funds; we hope that they work and we have tried to be constructive in our amendments to ensure that they have an even better chance of working. We certainly do not want to scrap them, as the Minister said, although she probably did not draft the press release that went out in her name. With that, Mr. Amess, I end by saying that I look forward to the Report stage.