Clause 1
Equality Bill
9:45 am
Tim Boswell (Daventry, Conservative)
I hope that the Solicitor-General will not go too far down that line, because it might distress you to know, Mr. Benton, as she well knows, that the 50p rate is likely to have a negative real yield and that measures to ameliorate inheritance tax have been encouraged by the Government themselves in response to Conservative initiatives. But we will leave the issue of redistributive taxation.
We would feel happier with a society where people had opportunity and were not frustrated, discriminated against or humiliated. Whether the clause, with its high-sounding rubric and poor, questionable and indirect delivery, will achieve that is a matter that we may wish to test later on.