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House of Lords (Members’ Taxation Status) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I, too, support the Bill, for the simple reason that it cannot be right that Members of Your Lordships’ House do not pay tax in the United Kingdom. I hope that the Government will either adopt the Bill or give it a fair wind. This House is unelected. Unlike the Commons, most of us who have the privilege of being here have never come under the scrutiny that is part and parcel of standing for election; it is hard to imagine that an electorate would choose as their Member of Parliament a person who did not pay tax like the people who he or she seeks to represent. We in this House play a very important role in the governance of this nation; we scrutinise legislation, we amend legislation and at times we create it. We are able to delay the will of the House of Commons, because it is our role to take the long view, to say ““hold on”” if we feel that the Government have rushed to legislate inappropriately. In our bicameral system, we have a serious constitutional function. Therefore, the honour that has been bestowed on us is of a different order from any other honour. It is not like having a knighthood or being a dame, and it is unfortunate that those who are British-born who have those honours might not pay tax. We in this House have been given a special power as well as privilege. It is an affront to the people of Britain who work hard and pay their taxes that those who govern should consider themselves too grand to contribute through the tax system to the commonwealth of this nation. Part of the social contract in any democracy worth the name is that we all contribute financially to the running of our society. The very notion that some of the fortunate rich of our nation should secrete their wealth in offshore accounts or maintain that their primary home is elsewhere, but still feel that they can justify legislating for the rest of us, is unacceptable to me and to most of the citizens of this country. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott. The message that he brings to this House, and that we should endorse, is that tax dodgers do not have a place in our legislature. If you do not pay your taxes, vacate your seat and let someone who does pay their taxes fill it. The old slogan was, ““No taxation without representation””; the new slogan has to be, ““No representation without taxation””.