Windfall Tax

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:57 pm on 21 November 1996.

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Photo of John Prescott John Prescott Shadow Secretary of State, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee, Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition 4:57, 21 November 1996

I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof: notes the plight of unemployed young people and the long-term unemployed and welcomes the Labour Party's initiatives to deal with these problems, to be financed by a windfall levy on the excess profits of the privatised utilities.

The Deputy Prime Minister sought to prove that consumers, shareholders and pensioners will suffer from Labour's windfall levy. That is the Government's case. We did not hear one word from him about the excess profits that have been made by the privatised utilities. There is no doubt that they have made such profits; even the regulators have recognised that and taken action. I thought that the right hon. Gentleman's speech was rather tired. It contained an awful lot of tired questions and was not even helped by the humour in a couple of set questions with set answers.

The Deputy Prime Minister made much play of the question whether we are proposing a levy or a tax, and no doubt we will hear an awful lot more about that. Perhaps those words do not come easily to him.