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National Insurance Contributions Bill

It is a pleasure to be able to wind up the debate on behalf of the Opposition. It seems that it is another week, another emergency statement from the Treasury, but this afternoon's debate has been more about what Labour in government does best: imposing stealth taxes and hitting hard-working people across the country. In the midst of the incompetence that we see almost daily across government and truly embedded in the Treasury, there is one thing that the Government do with aplomb and vigour—tax people who do not even realise it and then, in customary Government style, dress it up as somehow doing those people a favour. As my hon. Friend the Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke) pointed out, this measure was part of a Budget that was represented as some sort of tax cut but eventually emerged in its true form as a tax con. The Bill represents a stealth tax on savers and on those who are trying to provide for themselves in retirement. It is a stealth tax because, on the one hand, it ratchets up significantly the national insurance contribution from middle and higher earners—by £1.5 billion, a not insubstantial amount, in 2009-10 alone—by aligning the national insurance upper earnings level with the higher rate taxation level. On the other, the Bill goes further and makes sure that people paying extra NI contributions will see little, if any, of them in terms of their additional state second pension rights accrued. Combined with the backdrop of a weak Chancellor buffeted by events, today's date was apparently destined to be a lively one. In reality it proved less so because, unfortunately and disappointingly, not one Labour Back Bencher took the time to contribute to this debate—