Clause 1. — (Duty on Tea.)

Part of Orders of the Day — Finance Bill. – in the House of Commons at on 19 June 1922.

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Photo of Mr George Barker Mr George Barker , Abertillery

I wish to support the Amendment, although I do not believe in a tax on tea at all. Tea is one of the necessaries of life that should escape all taxation. It will be admitted by every fair-minded person that the remission of taxtion in this Budget is very unfairly balanced. If the liberties of Debate allowed me to go through the Budget, I think I could very strongly substantiate the statement I have made. In remitting taxation the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the steward of the nation; he should show no class bias when he is drawing up his Budget, but should hold the scales of taxation evenly between all classes in the country. I do not think you could find in any Budget of modern times more glaring examples of unfairness than could be cited in this one. The wealthy citizen of the country—