Rate Support Grant Supplementary Report

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 9:31 pm on 20 March 1984.

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Photo of Jack Straw Jack Straw Shadow Spokesperson (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) 9:31, 20 March 1984

I would never be provoked, and I am sure that, had a point of order been put to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, you would have said that how the Liberals or anyone else voted is a matter for the record. No doubt, Hansard for the Committee will be available tomorrow, and I am sure that the hon. Member for Tiverton (Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop) will be the first at the Vote Office to get a copy, hot off the press, to check on the Liberal voting record on the Rates Bill. I hasten to add, however, that the vote was not on the introduction of the rerating of agriculture but on the more modest proposal to introduce a report on that proposition.

As the Under-Secretary said, the scope of the second supplementary report for England is limited. It implements the effects of changes in interest rates between the rate estimated at the time of the original settlement and the revised estimate in the rates for 1983–84. I turn to page 1, paragraph 4, of the report. I give that information for the benefit of my three hon. Friends the Members for Worsley (Mr. Lewis), for Burnley (Mr. Pike) and for Knowsley, South (Mr. Hughes), who I know are following this with great assiduity, and who I know are anxious about their reselection, because the constituency parties are thinking of nothing but the Rate Support Grant Supplementary Report (England) (No. 2).