I should begin by welcoming the Minister of State to our proceedings on the Finance Bill as the clause that we are discussing is her first segment of the Bill. I also welcome some of her remarks. She said that she had some sympathy with the aims of our amendment, that she regarded the principle enshrined in it as important and that only practicalities outweighed it in her mind. In another part of her speech, she said, quite correctly, that the present married couples' allowance system is not perfect.

I welcome all those statements. It is a pity that, although the Government support the principle of making the married couples' allowance a joint decision between husband and wife rather than an automatic accretion to the husband's tax relief, they do not carry their sympathy into legislation.

The Minister of State said that the cost next year of the commitment to child benefit would use up more of the amount raised by freezing the married couple's allowance,

I do not think that it would use up all of it. If I am incorrect, I shall happily give way to the Minister. The figures in the Red Book do not seem to indicate that, even then, it would use up all of it.