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National Insurance Contributions Bill

The IFS also said at the time of the Budget that the"““income tax and NI package has been cleverly designed to limit the number of losers to one-household-in-five at a modest overall cost to the Exchequer””." So there was actually much praise from the IFS for the overall balance of the package that this Bill helps to put into effect. The hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke) talked about simplicity and said that we should be wary of it. He also shied away from a direct question. I had to ask him more than once about the Opposition's attitude now to the pensions consensus that had been developed, and which was put into effect during the passage of the Pensions Act 2007. I asked him a direct question—whether the flatrating of the state second pension was still part of the consensus, and whether the Opposition had now decided that they did not wish, in opposing this Bill, to see that crucial part of the Turner commission reforms put into effect. In the light of the hon. Gentleman's refusal to answer that question, we have had a huge flip-flop from the Conservative party on what was meant to be a consensus. When the Pensions Bill, which referred to this exact—