New Clause. — (Purchase Tax Relief for Tax-Paid Stocks.)

Part of Orders of the Day — Finance Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 22 June 1953.

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Photo of Mr James Hudson Mr James Hudson , Ealing North 12:00, 22 June 1953

As I listen to hon. Gentlemen opposite I find I have more sympathy than I usually feel about the difficulties in which they are placed. I feared that in this discussion they would have taken a line of escape that might have been open to them, namely, that the reason why they have run away from supporting the same Clause as they themselves brought before the Committee last year was because the Chancellor had done something effective to meet the point of view of their own new Clause of a year ago.

They have not taken that line. I admire the hon. Gentleman the Member for Louth (Mr. Osborne), who still stands by his convictions and bitterly complains at the inadequacy of the proposals of the Government. He knows that the problem of the small businessman who came to him in what he called his political surgery last year, who was already in debt to the bank to the extent of £5,000 and had to find another £2,000 to cover the purchase of articles that he was going to sell in his retail business, has not been faced adequately by what has been done.

The hon. Gentleman speaks quite rightly tonight in terms of resentment at the proposals of the Hutton Committee and at the use by the Chancellor of those proposals. The same thing applies to other hon. Gentlemen. The right hon. Member for Blackburn, West (Mr. Assheton) said that the Clause to which the names of his hon. Friends were placed last year was a sound Conservative Clause, that it was non-mandatory, that it gave the Government an opportunity to look for something better if they could find it, but that it called upon them to act.

As hon. Gentlemen opposite still think that the Hutton Committee have not faced, and the Government have not applied, the practical proposals that came before the Hutton Committee from the retail traders, I should think they are bound tonight to support the hon. Lady the Member for Blackburn, East (Mrs. Castle), and hon. Members on this side of the Committee who have put down the same non-mandatory new Clause as was put forward last year.

As I inferred by a slight interjection in the debate last year, I speak on behalf of a considerable body of co-operators who share with retailers generally the great disability imposed by this unwillingness to deal with an effective grievance. They lose many thousands of pounds. I speak not only on their behalf. I have had a great sheaf of correspondence, as I expect hon. Members generally have had from their own local traders.

Reference has been made to the complaint by Mr. Bentall of the £12,000 he loses by the neglect of the Chancellor to face up to this position. Mr. Bentall is not only a prominent constituent of the Financial Secretary in Kingston, but has a great emporium in Ealing as well. At the last Election I learned of his great anxiety to keep me out of Parliament, which led to substantial efforts to back up that purpose by the people who were sent into my constituency and the neighbouring constituency. I do not know what Mr. Bentall thinks about his Financial Secretary now, but I am hoping that he will modify his opinion about me in view of the speech I am making on his behalf as well as on behalf of the Cooperative movement, and will decide that I was, after all, not so inimical to his purposes as he had imagined.

I find among the electrical and other industries—of which there are many in my Division in Greenford, Perivale and so on—the greatest resentment at the unwillingness of the Hutton Committee to face the practical suggestions put before them. I agree with those industries that it was quite wrong of the Hutton Committee to suggest that there was a sort of compensation to traders at the time when the tax was put on or increased. The British buying public are a very hard taskmaster. When they hear that a tax has been put on, knowing that the articles to be sold have been in the possession of the trader and obtained by him at a lower price than that which prevails after the tax, they look for a continuance of an advantage in the price of the article for a week or two, or even a month or two. Indeed, the forces of competition, acting on the trader anxious to snatch at what advantage he can obtain, prevent at the time the tax is put on anything of that compensation implied by the Hutton Committee.

This is a problem that stands by itself and the traders are right. The Co-operative movement are right when they say that in order to meet the problem now placed upon the retail trader the Chancellor should have found—if the Hutton Committee could not find it for him— a better conclusion than that which he has put before us. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn, East, despite what was said by the hon. Member for the Cities of London and Westminster (Sir H. Webbe) about the way in which the buying public settle this issue rather than the Chancellor. I do not think that the great firm with which the hon. Member is associated always take that attitude. The Chancellor settles a great many issues for his firm and that is not to be placed at the doors of the buying public. I do not think this issue can be placed at their doors. If they see an advantage, the buying public take it whereever they can. It is the duty of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to face that problem and to meet the disabilities that traders feel in this matter.

Although various figures have been given about the losses, I cannot estimate how much loss retail traders will suffer. I know that in the Co-operative movement the losses run into tens of thousands of pounds, taking the movement as a whole. Some estimates have been made that the total cost to what the hon. Member for Louth said were 425,000 local traders affected by this proposal. Those people really ought to be a preoccupation of every hon. Member, particularly hon. Members opposite who make so many promises to them. The cost added up to millions of pounds; how many millions I am not prepared to say. We ought to get tonight from hon. Members opposite a greater willingness than they have yet indicated to support this new Clause.

It is all very well saying that the Chancellor is now left to think it over again. It is all very well for the hon. Member for the Cities of London and Westminster to say to the Chancellor that he hopes he will do this or that during the coming year. What can be expected of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if, after putting their names to a new Clause on the issue last year and seeing the matter come to a head this year in such a way that everybody realises the necessity for action, hon. Members opposite fail to register in any way their objection to what is taking place. What is the hon. Member for Kidderminster (Mr. Nabarro) going to say? I compliment him; he has found his way into the Committee at last. I hope he will find his way into the Division Lobby. At any rate, some good reason—a better reason than any I have heard—will have to be provided for him if a satisfactory story is to be told to his constituents. I have no doubt that he is pretty good in telling a long story, but it will have to be a pretty long one this time.

The Conservative Party have to face this issue at the present time as they have not had to face it before; and they do so after all the professions they have made and challenges they have thrown out in the past about the defence of the little man, about setting the little man free, about putting him in a position so that he can fight effectively with the great and powerful trader who tends to crush him out of existence. There is a very special case for the Conservative Party accepting their duty and supporting us in this proposition. At any rate, I am very glad I have had this opportunity to speak, and I will see this matter through with my hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn, East, who moved the new Clause.