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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who is a tremendous champion of manufacturing, particularly in his constituency, where he regularly raises those issues. Undoubtedly, manufacturing jobs are something that we should encourage. By penalising investment in capital-intensive goods we will make manufacturers less able to continue to invest and to take on the challenge of the low-wage economies with which they are constantly, and increasingly, competing. The measure is therefore of little help to them. The other losers in the so-called Budget for business are small businesses, which must pay an increased corporation tax rate as a result of the Chancellor’s sleight of hand. That tax rate, hon. Members will know, will go up by 3 per cent. over the next three years.