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Finance Bill

If the hon. Gentleman will allow me to make a little progress, I will be happy to give way later. I am coming to the 10p tax rate in a moment. If he will contain himself, a number of assertions were made and it is right and proper that I should respond to them. All pensioner households are now, as has been said, supported by winter fuel payments. Nearly 60 per cent. of all pensioners will not pay any income tax at all in 2008-09. Pension credit has guaranteed a minimum net income of £119 for a single person. While the Conservatives talk about tackling poverty with pretend concern, we have tackled it. It might be of interest of the House to learn that, way back, the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) made a very revealing comment. He said:"““I long for a chancellor who stands up and introduces a Budget which abolishes all of Brown's endless reliefs and credits—and uses the money to cut tax rates at the same time. 'My Budget has no title', the peroration would go, 'it's your money, spend it as you choose.' Am I alone?””" We now know that he is not alone, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) would agree with a lot of those statements, but we would not. We do not accept that that is the way to help the poorest families in this country. As the next stage in the process, the package announced in the 2007 Budget changed the tax and benefits system to offer further support for work, families and pensioners. The changes removed the 10p starting rate of tax, reduced the basic rate of tax to 20p, increased the allowances for pensioners aged 65 and over, increased working tax credits to help low-income households and increased child tax credits to provide additional support to families with children. As a result of the changes, child poverty will affect 200,000 fewer than otherwise and households with children in the poorest fifth are, on average, £340 a year better off. Some 600,000 fewer pensioners will pay income tax. In the 2008 Budget, the Government were able to go even further, with additional increases in child tax credit and child benefit that remove another 250,000 children from poverty. We will provide additional support to pensioners through the winter fuel allowance. I know that the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Sir Robert Smith) wanted to intervene. Perhaps he would like to do so now.