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Occupational Pensions

The plans for the pension tax raid were, strangely enough, dreamt up in a hotel room. They were dreamt up by the small cabal of the then shadow Chancellor, which included the Economic Secretary, in the penthouse suite of the Grosvenor House hotel, which was taken by the hon. Member for Coventry, North-West (Mr. Robinson), who I see has also brought a copy of his book into the Chamber. He is the Chancellor’s former paymaster in more ways than one. It is all there in the hon. Gentleman’s memoirs, which are titled ““The Unconventional Minister?. I guess that unconventional meant that he was bankrolling the Chancellor, and providing Tuscan villas to the Prime Minister and mortgages to Peter Mandelson. It is clear from the memoirs that right from the start the tax on pensions was never about encouraging retained profits or increased investment, or any of the other excuses that the Chancellor still peddles. The paymaster says in his book:"““We needed the money. It had to come from somewhere. We set a target of increasing revenues by £5 billion per annum…There were not many options. If the target was going to be met, then tax credits had to go.?" Of course, they were still in Opposition while the plans were being drawn up—