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Industry and Exports (Financial Support) Bill

My hon. Friend is exactly right. The Government have struggled to find anybody, certainly in the retail sector, prepared to say that the 2.5 per cent. VAT cut has been successful. It has, in fact, been a burden to businesses as they struggle to try to deliver it to their customers—in the case of a restaurant, for example, without having to change the entire menu at lavish cost. All sorts of companies are affected; a car park in Bromsgrove has to run free days in order to recompense the public for their 2.5 per cent. VAT cut. As I say, it has been yet another burden to most businesses and it is certainly not obvious how it has encouraged consumer sales. When I went shopping at Marks and Spencer before Christmas, the store had 20 per cent. off; I have not returned since, despite the Government's provision of 2.5 per cent. off. We all know how customers behave and we all know that sales in shops have been much bigger than anything provided by the VAT cut. As my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Michael Fabricant) rightly said, we will also have to pay £12 billion back in the end. Actually, £12 billion is the cost of the measures in this Bill, and the money is much better spent on those measures than on a VAT cut, which barely anyone has noticed and even fewer feel was worth while. I thus genuinely wish the Minister well in executing Government policy to help UK plc, because it needs that help.