Topical question asked in the House of Commons, by Andrew MacKay (Conservative). It was answered on Tuesday, 2 February 2010 on behalf of the Treasury.

Topical Questions

Question: Just why did the Chancellor earlier duck a direct question from the shadow Chancellor, my hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne), about the future of the Prime Minister's Tobin tax proposals? Was it because he was embarrassed to take sides between the Governor and the Prime Minister?

Answer: The House will know that on 10 December last year the Government published a wide range of proposals relating to matters including transaction taxes, increased capital and the insurance levy. All those matters are still being discussed. The IMF has been asked to come up with proposals, which will be discussed at the spring meetings. As I said earlier, there are problems which we know need to be dealt with at global level. We have constructive proposals for doing that, and we will work with other countries to ensure that this year we implement what we agreed to do last year. That is critical.

Secondary information