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European Communities (Finance) Bill

I advise the Chief Secretary to stop digging. He is right that the own-resources decision sets out the mechanism by which the British rebate adjustment will be calculated—of course it does—but it does not set out the EU budget, which is what he has been spouting on about for most of the debate. Let me come to the critical point. If we decline to give the Bill a Second Reading, what will happen? Will the roof fall in? Will the sun not rise in the east tomorrow morning? Nothing will happen. Life—even life in the EU—will go on exactly as before. The existing own-resources decision will continue in force, indefinitely if necessary. The total expenditure budget will not be affected. The only difference will be that member states' contributions will continue to be assessed on the same basis as they were last year and the year before. The UK will remain the EU's second largest net contributor, but we will have £7.4 billion more to spend on British priorities; perhaps we could use it to reverse some of the Government's most recent round of stealth taxes or reduce the £143 billion that the Chancellor plans to borrow in the next five years.