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Future EU Finances and Own Resources

I am reflecting on some of the hon. Gentleman’s rather exaggerated figures for the UK’s net contributions. In the period up to 1997, in the days when I debated at length with the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash), I was well aware of the arguments he used to put to the then Government Treasury Bench. Presumably if the hon. Gentleman is consistent, he will argue that the situation that we inherited was catastrophic and that since 1997 there has been a huge improvement in the relative contributions made by the UK, especially in relation to other member states. If the hon. Member for Altrincham and Sale, West (Mr. Brady) is still critical of that imbalance, he will be extraordinarily critical of the one person who unites most Opposition Members—the Baroness Thatcher.