Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 9 May 1956.
The law is not changed as regards any vehicle as made by the manufacturer. The law is only changed as regards certain conversions.
Clause 6 will have the effect of making all these conversions liable to tax. I am saying nothing whatever against those who have successfully used this loophole and, so to speak, driven a way through it. They did nothing which the law, in its faulty form, did not allow them to do. The new Clause will operate from 1st June, so if any hon. Member is converting a van at week-ends he had better spend the Whitsun Recess getting it finished—or else inveigle his friends into finishing it for him, as Tom Sawyer did.