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Finance Bill

Of course it is uncomfortable, but a Lord Lamont-style rant, which talks down the situation for political gain and makes it appear worse, for political purposes, than it is, will not help. I exempt the hon. Gentleman from my opening remarks, because he has a genuine interest in the small businesses about which he spoke. However, it does not help those small businesses to talk up the credit crunch or talk down the economy—the real economy. David Smith also says that some of the conversations about the credit crunch are divorced from the way in which the real economy works. The small businesses about which the hon. Member for Northampton, South speaks can prosper in and take succour from the stable economy, unbroken since before 1997. The business people whom he forcefully represents want that sort of climate and will prosper in it. When considering the removal of the 10p tax rate, we must examine both the proposal itself and the global circumstances in which it is being discussed. Members of all parties refer to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. One of its leading economists said that there are basically three solutions and that, in simple terms, two are simply not affordable. The one that is left is to mitigate the effect on the so-called 5.3 million. The effect cannot be reversed, as the Opposition suggest, but mitigated. Labour Members have pointed out the problem with mitigation, but we have received no help from Opposition Members, who refuse to say what they would do instead. The problem is that several separate components of the electorate are differently affected by the removal of the 10p tax rate, so that mitigation for one sector might not assist another. The House must consider that seriously. My right hon. Friend and neighbour the Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) may table an amendment to try to address the mitigation aspect, but could fall into the trap of not dealing with the matter for every one of the 5.3 million. We should not, as the hon. Member for Tatton said about a different matter, rush to judgment. What is to be done? My right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary said that the matter would be considered. The Treasury Committee suggested that that could be done in conjunction with it. That may well be a sensible option. However, the matter is much more complicated and serious for the people whom we are considering than we have explored with Opposition Members, unless the hon. Member for Fareham can tell us what he would do in place of removing the 10p tax rate.