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Finance Bill

I am again grateful for an extremely helpful intervention, because it is my party's policy to reduce income tax rates on the lowest earners. Hon. Members must remember that the Labour party and the Conservative party are committed to offering identical levels of taxation at the next general election. I hope that my party will have the scope to offer even more than we already propose to help some of those people on the lowest incomes in this country, who in my view are paying far too great a proportion of their income in taxation. The hon. Gentleman has also brought me neatly to the Conservative alternative to the proposals in the Bill. As I said earlier, the Conservative party leader did not notice the doubling of the 10p rate, so I must rely on quotations from other Conservative Front Benchers for guidance. On 16 April, while the House was in recess, the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in a national newspaper wrote:"““I would stop the tax rises on families.””" But we know that he will do nothing of the sort, because the Conservative party is committed to precisely the same levels of overall taxation as the Labour party. In fact, the Conservatives have two criticisms of the Labour Government: the first is that they tax too much, spend too much and waste too much, and the second is that they have not done what the Conservatives would do, which is exactly the same. The Conservative party and the Labour party have morphed into a single entity. Every time the Conservatives criticise Labour tax rises, we should remember that they must have a secret extra tax rise in mind to make up for the one that they are criticising. The Conservatives feign concern about those who will be harmed by the doubling of the 10p rate, but at the Conservative party conference last autumn, what was the party's main priority for helping those who were struggling with their tax burden? Was it helping the people on the lowest incomes—the people whom I mentioned earlier, the farm labourers, hotel receptionists and hospital porters cited by the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond)? Was it single people under the age of 25 on modest incomes? No; they were completely ignored by the Conservatives. Was it pensioners between the ages of 60 and 64, who will be adversely affected by the Government's proposals? No, it was not them either. The group singled out for special assistance by the Conservative shadow Chancellor—