Clause 15
Finance Bill
3:45 pm
Jeremy Browne (Taunton, Liberal Democrat)
I am not seeking to debate that Conservative policy again, but I wanted to make this specific point: the Government may or may not have a coherent policy for fuel duty increases, but surely any Opposition party that is even vaguely serious about assuming office would have made an estimate of the adverse impact on the public finances of voting against a duty increase that had already taken effect. It would have cost the Exchequer a certain amount every day, had the joint Conservative-SNP policy been successful. I cannot believe that anyone who wished to be in office would not have made that calculation and shared it with the Committee.