---

Finance Bill

The hon. Gentleman is right that a case can be made for moving it back, but that would have an effect on the Exchequer and, to be fair, I have been making the case that we do not have the spare money. As I have said, we oppose that because we do not think there is room in the budget, and we are therefore not persuaded of the case for moving it back to June or February or any other time. Our proposal would have an advantage in addition to that of practicality: it would save some money. We can argue about what we should do with the money—whether some of it should go towards public works, some towards other tax cuts and some towards reducing the level of borrowing—but we are by no means alone in believing that the cut should be brought forward. In "Progress" magazine in March, in an article entitled, interestingly enough, "April 2009, make or break month for Labour"—Labour Members can work out for themselves whether it was a make or break month for them—the right hon. Member for North Tyneside (Mr. Byers) wrote:""I supported the V.A.T. cut in December. It was exactly the right thing to do at the time and it has been supported by many independent commentators since. However, I do now question whether it has run its course both in terms of its overall benefit to the economy and in relation to the political return that comes to the government."" Speaking in the House on 31 March, the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) said:""I believe it is time to bring forward the end date of the VAT reduction."—[Official Report, 31 March 2009; Vol. 490, c. 845.]" It is clear that both Members believe that the time has come to return VAT to its previous rate. For the reasons I have given, we will vote against clause 9. We want VAT to return to its previous rate of 17.5 per cent. on 1 December. We thought that the policy was bad when it was introduced in the last pre-Budget report, and the facts that have emerged since then have reinforced our view that we cannot afford it. We think that, in continuing to pursue their policy in the face of our warnings, the position of the Liberal Democrats and, indeed, the position of their own Back Benchers, the Government are making a mistake. The sooner they recognise it and stop pursuing a failed policy, the better it will be for the United Kingdom.