Clause 4
Finance Bill
12:30 pm
Peter Bone (Wellingborough, Conservative)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Atkinson. We are seeing a clear change in Government policy here. The stealth tax is still present—they are trying to get it through the back door. It is an attempt to tax higher earners, going away from the Tony Blair philosophy that swept Labour into power. Now the Government believe in tax-and-spend, while the Conservatives believe in lower taxation and responsible spending. That is good for the election that is on the horizon.
I remember last year, in every debate, whoever was Chancellor stood up and said, “We believe in making a simple tax system. We want to remove complications and have as few rates as possible.” What we now have is a complete and utter reversal, which I think is a mistake. Honesty would have been the better policy—not fiddling with personal allowances but simply putting the tax rate up on higher earners, if that was what the Government believed was right. Then we can have a proper debate. The days of stealth taxes should be over.