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Capital Gains Tax

I do not know of many people who would argue that capital gains tax should be put back up to the 40 per cent. rate. If that is the Liberal party policy, I was not aware of it—and I am sure that many of the hon. Gentleman's colleagues are not aware of it either. I suspect that two parties in the House will make it their business to ensure that people around the country know that that has become the Liberal party's policy. As the hon. Gentleman has set out, the Liberal policy has been to end taper relief. I believe that our proposals of October and of today provide the right approach. Simplifying taxes must be a good thing if we can do it. What I sought to do in October was set out a much simpler capital gains tax system at a rate of 18 per cent., but I recognised that we needed to do more to help small businesses in particular. As I said earlier, there are 760,000 small businesses in this country. There is additional help—it is important to remember this—through venture capital trusts and enterprise investment schemes. The enterprise schemes have raised about £6 billion and have invested in 14,000 companies, while venture capital trusts have raised about £3 billion and helped about 1,400 companies. That shows that there are many other things we can do to help small businesses through the capital gains tax and income tax regimes. I believe that what I have announced today will be good for small businesses. I have listened to what people have had to say and I believe it important to get the issues right. Overall, simplifying the tax has to be the right way forward. I can see no justification for putting the rate of capital gains tax back up to 40 per cent., which is what I now understand the hon. Gentleman's and the Liberal policy to be.