Fuel and Power for Domestic or Charity Use

Part of Clause 42 – in the House of Commons at 9:15 pm on 10 May 1993.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Sir John Cope Sir John Cope , Northavon 9:15, 10 May 1993

This has been an important and, indeed, a real debate. I shall do my best to respond to those who have taken the trouble to speak in the debate from my party as well as from other parties.

I say at the start, because it has not always been apparent from speeches by Opposition Members, that no one, either on the Government side of the House or on the Opposition side, likes increasing taxes. One of my most distinguished predecessors as Paymaster General, Edmund Burke, was quoted earlier by my hon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh (Mr. Milligan) as saying that to tax and to please is given to no man. His successor today certainly understands the force of that. Nobody likes the necessity—and it is a necessity—of raising more revenue. But it is a necessity, which we as the Government must face —[Interruption.] Labour Members can dismiss it if they like and can sail over it, but we must face up to it in the interests of sound finance.

As the Committee knows and as the Chancellor spelled out at the start, the clause has two purposes, to raise—