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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

I have only about three minutes and I am not taking any more interventions. The Chancellor is going to announce tomorrow what will happen to education expenditure in Northern Ireland. Of course, there is also the whole question of the economic package that will be required if the new devolved Administration is going to be sustainable. Let me come to some of the matters that cause me concern. The philosophy of our party is that a low-tax economy is a better economy—one that will have more sustainable growth—than a high-tax economy. It is quite clear, despite the euphoria with which the Chancellor’s announcement was greeted on the Labour Benches, that as far as taxation is concerned, this Budget increases the burden. It increases the burden of personal taxation, as can be seen on page 208 of the Red Book. If we add in the taking away of the 10p income tax band and the changes to national insurance contributions, it is clear that taxpayers will be worse off. I suppose it was a classic piece of Stalinist propaganda at the end of the Chancellor’s speech—and it was cheered to the hilt by Labour Members. I know that the Chancellor has been compared to Stalin, but perhaps it would be better to compare him to Fagin—some kind of fiscal pickpocket who has people cheering him when he picks their pockets. That is exactly what is happening here. Indeed, according to the Red Book, the overall tax burden will go up by 8 per cent., while growth is predicted to be at 2.5 per cent. So the real burden of taxation will increase, even though the Chancellor claims that this is a Budget that rewards taxpayers and lightens the burden. All that, of course, impacts on personal initiative, which will in turn impact on economic growth. My second area of concern is the increase in corporation tax for small businesses. The Secretary of State has quite rightly said that Northern Ireland must become less reliant on the public sector and more reliant on the private sector. I agree with that, but if we are to move towards a more private sector-based economy, the initial growth will be in small businesses. Yet here we have a Chancellor who is penalising small businesses. Again, if we look at the figures we find that when the impact of the increase in corporation tax for small businesses comes through, £820 million will have been taken from such businesses. That hardly provides a basis for moving from greater reliance on the public sector to greater reliance on the private sector. The construction and haulage industries in Northern Ireland will be affected by the 20 per cent. increase in the aggregates tax. Northern Ireland has a specific problem in that regard, in that we have a border with the Irish Republic, where similar taxation is not imposed. Debate adjourned.—[Steve McCabe.] Debate to be resumed tomorrow.