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Finance (No. 4) Bill

I have admitted that we proposed amendments in 2005, 2008 and 2011. The hon. Gentleman is right that we did not do it every year, but every time we made the proposal, the voting record of each of the unionist parties has been consistent. The 1p off fuel duty announced last year was not a regulator in the way that the Treasury suggested, and the 3p increase in August is most certainly not either. In the continuing poor economic circumstances, I would rather the proposed fuel duty rise in August was cancelled, so that businesses did not have to face that extra cost in these tough times. Families could use that money for their own benefit; that would help them and the wider economy. As my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee East (Stewart Hosie) said, that would be one way of removing a serious drag on economic recovery. I hardly need explain that my party and I are in favour of maintaining the 50p tax rate for those who earn more than £3,000 a week. Indeed, unlike the overwhelming majority of the official Opposition—there are two honourable exceptions—I put my disagreement with the policy on record in the vote on 26 March. It cannot be right for the Government to offer a tax cut to those who earn the most while announcing a £10 billion cut to the welfare budget. Clearly, we are not all in this together.