Confidence in Her Majesty's Government

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:44 pm on 27 March 1991.

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Photo of Mr Neil Kinnock Mr Neil Kinnock Leader of HM Official Opposition, Leader of the Labour Party, Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee 3:44, 27 March 1991

I think that Tory Members may be trying to make up for 12 years of past sin. We have no sins to make up for.

When the Secretary of State for the Environment says that most people should pay, in this subtle shift of the cardinal principle, it seems that "most" is very broad. When the Secretary of State for the Environment was asked whether nurses, students and others on low incomes will have to pay the new double tax, he said: the sort of coverage that we've got today will be carried into the new system. We intend the incidence of liability to remain where it is. How will that "incidence of liability" be recorded? Perhaps the Prime Minister can tell us this afternoon. After all, he did tell us—he told me last Tuesday—that "all" questions on the poll tax would be answered by the end of this week."—[Official Report, 19 March 1991; Vol. 188, c. 158.]

That was last week. He did not keep that pledge, due, I am sure, to circumstances totally beyond his control. So let him now give the answers that he promised.

First, will there be a register in his new system? The Secretary of State said on Thursday evening, "We may not need a register." A little later he said: we shall not need a register. I have made that clear. On the same evening, the Secretary of State for Scotland said: Clearly, there will have to be some kind of register".—[Official Report, 21 March 1991; Vol. 188, c. 422, 474.] Will the Prime Minister, as the supreme arbiter that we are told he is, answer the register question now?

Secondly, will the Prime Minister tell us what is to be the legal liability in the two-tax, one-bill system that the Government want to foist upon every household in the country? The Secretary of State for the Environment was asked: Is one person in a household going to be legally liable? He said: "It doesn't follow." If that is the case, may I ask the Prime Minister, will everyone in the household be legally liable? Surely someone has to be legally liable: who will it be? Surely the question of legal liability does not have to await consultation. It should be a basic matter of principle, and I am sure that the Prime Minister can tell us the answer this afternoon.

Thirdly, will the 20 per cent. rule remain? Surely the Prime Minister can answer that straightforward question. Will it remain, or will he follow Labour party policy again—act the magpie again—and get rid of the 20 per cent. rule as we shall do? Fourthly, what will be the balance between the poll tax element and the property tax element in the new tax scheme? In Southport last Saturday, the Prime Minister said that "the principles" of the new tax should be based First, on the number of people in each household. Second, on the value of the property people live in". Will the Prime Minister tell us precisely where he stands in the full arc from the poll tax to the rates, in the spectrum of division in his party?