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Finance Bill

I am grateful for that intervention, which brings me perfectly to the next speech that was delivered on that occasion, which was by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North-East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell), the then leader of the Liberal Democrats—[Interruption.] Indeed, he is not our leader now, but he made a speech that would have informed both Labour and Conservative Members if they had taken the opportunity to listen to it. If you will indulge me, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I will cite what he said at some length. In the same debate as the leader of the Conservative party welcomed the tax cuts, my right hon. and learned Friend said:"““The Chancellor told us as he sat down, to waves of applause, that he would cut the basic rate of income tax from 22p to 20p. On the face of it, that is a Liberal Democrat proposal and a welcome one. But if one looks carefully, one sees that the revenue to justify that reduction will be obtained from the abolition of the 10p rate. To fund the reduction, income tax will be increased for many taxpayers. One could say that we will be asking the poor to subsidise the rich. That is an example of the sleight of hand that the Chancellor has demonstrated in the past.””—[Official Report, 21 March 2007; Vol. 458, c. 834.]" [Interruption.] I hear sedentary interventions once again, but there is a difference between being the official Opposition and being an effective Opposition; just being numerically superior in the House of Commons does not make Members more able to stand up on behalf of their constituents. [Interruption.] We will come on to the Conservative party in more detail in a few moments, as its tax policies deserve greater scrutiny.