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Finance (No. 2) Bill

I am prompted to make some brief remarks by the many remarks made by Opposition Members. First, I reject the calumny that the Opposition have projected on to Labour Members that, somehow, we are not aware that trusts are often used for non-tax avoidance purposes. We are aware of that and I say that as someone who was a practising solicitor and who, on occasion, drew up trusts––although not for many years––and they were not for tax avoidance purposes. Many Labour Members recognise that, and I will not be tarred with the brush of being some kind of class warrior on this issue. Correspondingly, it behoves Opposition Members to recognise more forcefully than many of them have done in Committee and today that, on occasion, trusts are used for tax avoidance and that, from our perspective, trusts are abused in that way. It is understandable that individuals will try to minimise their tax bills in any tax regime. It is also understandable that a Government, particularly a Labour Government, will occasionally seek to clamp down on that. That is part of what schedule 20, which is the principal point now under debate, attempted to do.