Clause 9
Finance Bill
7:00 pm
Angela Eagle (Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury; Wallasey, Labour)
Changing how excise duty rules operate at European level is not quite as simple as the hon. Gentleman perhaps assumes. I understand his point and why he makes it, because it is about the Scotch whisky industry. That industry—as was pointed out when he got to his feet—has benefited from nine years of zero increases in duty. It is not happy about the across-the-board increase in this year’s Budget. One cannot expect it to be happy, but most of the rest of the alcohol industry would be very happy to have had nine years of no excise duty increases. I merely ask him to take that into account as he surveys the scene.
The increase is across the board; it does not target specific alcohol products. The Budget maintains a differential in duty rates between Scotch whisky and other alcohol products, although it does not narrow it as Scotch whisky would have wished. I understand its feelings about that, but I also note that 90 per cent. of Scotch whisky is exported, and it is doing extremely well in exports. I hope that Opposition members will not press the amendments. They are ineffective and certainly illegal, and for that reason unworkable. If they do press the amendments, I will ask my hon. Friends to vote against them.