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Finance (No. 2) Bill

The hon. Gentleman can speak for his constituency, but I dare to suggest that if he considers the whole country, his statement that 50 per cent. of estates will be valued at more than £325,000 in the next few years is a gross exaggeration. When the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet gave her list of teachers, fire officers and others, she appeared to suggest that all of them—every teacher in the country—will suddenly have to put together a new will and a new trust. She clearly has not met teachers in my constituency, or in the majority of constituencies, who will not get anywhere near the £325,000 figure. Consequently, her comments constitute a bit of scaremongering, which is an inappropriate approach to the Bill. Secondly, the reason for my opposition to new clause 1 and my wholehearted support for the Government’s proposals is that there are two alternative directions of travel in which we can move on inheritance tax. One is to undermine inheritance tax—not necessarily by pledging to abolish it, but by suggesting that one disagrees with it and would like to abolish it even if one does not have the gumption to say so. On the other hand—I may be about to step into old-fashioned shoes—some of us believe in inheritance tax for the simple reason that the greatest source of inequality and inequity in British society is inherited wealth. If we do nothing, especially when the wealthiest in our society are doing extremely well, to undermine the progress towards greater inequality, we undermine the fabric of the society in which I want and choose to live. The hon. Lady was wrong to table new clause 1. We need to do what the Government propose and try to ensure that there are not many different ways of exempting oneself from inheritance tax and that there are not ways that are especially available to the wealthiest in society, who can afford expensive consultants on tax and other matters.