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Finance Bill

I am grateful for your guidance, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Everything that has been said by my hon. Friend the Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) is eminently sensible. I commend it, in its entirety, to the hon. Gentleman. Just as Labour Members would have benefited from hearing my right hon. and learned Friend warn them of their impending doom, every time my hon. Friend speaks she can offer them guidance that will prove extremely useful as they seek re-election against a very unfavourable political backdrop. Like the Budget, this Finance Bill fails all the tests of leadership. It has no great purpose, it has no great vision, and it flunks all the big challenges. Worst of all, the proposals that we will scrutinise in depth in the months ahead have no soul. It is now impossible to work out what the Labour party exists to achieve. The abolition, or doubling, of the 10p rate sends out the signal that the end of the empty hologram that was new Labour has finally arrived. It was Harold Wilson, who won four out of five elections while leading his party—four more than will be won by the current Prime Minister—who said that the Labour party"““is a moral crusade or it is nothing””." Many Labour Members seem finally, but far too late, to have realised that with the doubling of the 10p rate their party is now nothing.