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Finance Bill

Will the hon. Gentleman carefully consider what he has just said and retract it in the interests of accuracy? He is repeating what the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) said a few days ago—that the cost of reducing the standard rate from 22p to 20p was being met largely by the impact of the reduction of the 10p rate on the less well-off. That is not the case. The cost of reducing the standard rate is £7,000 million or thereabouts; the cost, and the impact on the 5.3 million people affected, is £600 million or thereabouts, which is less than 10 per cent. of that.