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Finance Bill

I do not want to go too far off the beaten track, but the point that we have consistently made, and which the Government have not heeded, is that there will be public support for environmental taxation only if that taxation is offset by reductions in other taxes, most notably income taxes. I am in a strange position. I took an intervention from one Labour Back Bencher, the hon. Member for Wirral, West (Stephen Hesford), who said, ““Look at our environmental credentials; they are greater than you claim they are,”” and I am now hearing that the environmental credentials of the Liberal Democrats are excessively ambitious. Yet again, the lack of any sense of purpose and direction in the Government becomes obvious. I was listening to Radio 4 on the evening of Friday 18 April and when asked what would happen as a result of the growing rebellion in the Labour ranks over doubling the 10p rate, a Treasury Minister said, ““Watch this space.”” Well, we watched it today, and unless I missed something the Chief Secretary said no changes are possible. In fact, over the weekend, she took to the airwaves to damp down any speculation that that other Treasury Minister may have been suggesting or hinting at imminent changes. Labour MPs need to realise that there is no great salvation coming from the No. 10 bunker; they are on their own. In the bunker, all is dither and meltdown. If they want to save their lower and lower to middle income-earning constituents from taking a big tax hit precisely when their food and other bills, council tax and fuel bills are going up, that will not be achieved by this Prime Minister and this Chancellor. Labour MPs will have to act alone to try to represent the interests of their constituents.