Business of the House.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 17 November 1931.

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Photo of Sir William Brass Sir William Brass , Clitheroe

The hon. Member seems to think that the President of the Board of Trade, directly he gets his Resolution passed, is going to put on an enormous number of taxes and without thinking about it at all prevent all sorts of things from coming in. That is not what we are asking for. What we are asking for in the Resolution is to give power to the right hon. Gentleman to do this when the time arises. We want the power because in certain cases there are abnormal importations at present. It means that he will have the power to prevent certain things coming in which are upsetting our balance of trade. The hon. Member for Central Leeds (Mr. Denman) said the only effect of this was that it was going to prevent people from escaping taxes. I do not agree with him. I think the effect of it will be to prevent us from getting to a position where our balance of trade gets so bad that the value of the pound may decrease very considerably. That is even more important than the point that the hon. Member made. But that is not the only effect it is going to have. The Leader of the Opposition seems to be in the same position now as he was before the Election. He seems to think there is no crisis, but the electors have realised that there is a crisis. He says we are asking for a blank cheque. That is exactly what the Prime Minister asked for at the General Election and got by an overwhelming majority. I hope we shall get the same blank cheque with an overwhelming majority in the House.