Schedule 12
Finance Bill
11:30 am
Philip Hammond (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
It is interesting that when it suits Government Ministers, they refer to EU decisions, to which they are perfectly prepared to sign up, but they then say, “Actually we have a different view and our view will prevail”. The Minister used the term “small shareholding” in the last piece of brief that she read out. She has not addressed the substance of the amendment yet, and explain why the Government have chosen to use the word, “minority”, rather than “small”, which appears in her own briefing note. It is the more natural term to use and it conveys the meaning in question. Why is she choosing to use “minority” in a most unnatural sense?