Clause 1. — (TERMINATION OF SURCHARGE UNDER FINANCE ACT, 1961, s. 9, AND RELATED INCREASES IN DUTIES.)

Part of FINANCE (No. 2) BILL – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 1 June 1967.

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Photo of Mr John Peyton Mr John Peyton , Yeovil 12:00, 1 June 1967

I began to suspect that the hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Mr. Sheldon) was attempting to pull the collective leg of the Committee. It was only the serious expression on his face tha finally convinced me otherwise. He talked to us quite seriously about the Chancellor's unlimited opportunities for reducing taxation, as though the Chancellor had made a habit of it. The right hon. Gentleman is distinguished for many things—I do not want to go into such painful matters now—but the Chancellor is not distinguished for the use he has made so far of the opportunities before him of reducing taxation.

The hon. Member went on to entertain us further with the cautionary remark that we do not expect in these sophisticated days that the Chancellor should get it all right. I do not think I am breaking a confidence in any way when I say that such advice to the Committee was not necessary, because it is not a question of expecting at all. We know very well the Chancellor will not get it all right. What horrifies us is that the Chancellor only too often does not get anything right. For the hon. Gentleman to get up and make serious remarks like that is astonishing.

There was another interesting touch. The hon. Member for Heywood and Royton (Mr. Barnett) got sharply to his feet and castigated my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing (Mr. Higgins) for having made a meal of this somewhat indigestible subject. My hon. Friend may have had a fairly heavy lunch, but the hon. Gentleman himself went on to have a pretty substantial high tea off it and he was not the one to make accusations of that kind.

There is one serious question which we should ask ourselves. Can it be right to give such a power to such a Government when we know perfectly well that they have this ingrained habit of not making tax reductions but of increasing taxes? It is valuable for a Chancellor to have power to raise or decrease taxes in an informal manner, and no doubt we would be right to permit the regulator if the Chancellor's powers were limited and he could only reduce taxation. After all, he has put it on. By the standards of the Government, he has done only a minor piece of cheating. The Government slapped this bit on in the summer of last year and now they are incorporating it into the Finance Bill formally. This is not a proper use of the regulator which should be a temporary measure. Even if the tax is restored by some other legislative means, it is not right to confuse a temporary measure with the more permanent measures of taxation with which the Finance Bill deals.

I pause for a moment to think of the way in which the Government have gone on adding burdens on petrol, fuel oil, drink, and Purchase Tax, without pausing to think at all. I do not want to be distressingly funny on the subject, but we have recently read in a rather strange book, entitled "Pragmatic Premier", how the Prime Minister makes a habit of drinking gin out of a flower vase. Even the Prime Minister, well remunerated as he is, will not be able to continue to afford to consume his gin out of such large vessels if the Government continue in their present taxation habits.

5.15 p.m.

I am too defeatist to hope for any sensible answer to this question from the other side of the Committee, but the question which my right hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, West (Mr. Iain Macleod) should ask himself before deciding whether we should vote on the Amendment is whether we can trust the Government with it. Viewing the Government's record in this respect, I have the gravest doubts. However, I bow as always to the wisdom of my right hon. Friend and if he decides that it would be wrong to vote against the Amendment, with reluctance I would not do so myself. But I hope that he will address himself seriously to whether it is not the height of folly for the Conservative Party, knowing the Government's form as it does, to repose this method of informally increasing taxation in the hands of such a Government once again.