Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill

Debate between Anne McGuire and Charlie Elphicke

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Charlie Elphicke]

The hon. Gentleman strengthens my argument, because the point I was coming to is this: if an organisation is in receipt of public money for providing a service, is it really acceptable and justifiable for it to be able to lobby and spend money to warp our political system for the purposes of getting more of it? Personally, I do not think that it is.

[Mrs Anne McGuire (Stirling) (Lab)]

Does the hon. Gentleman not accept that one of the strengths of the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom is its right to have an independent voice and for it not to be assumed that, because those organisations are paid to deliver services, that independent voice should be muted?

[Charlie Elphicke]

It has been argued that state funding weakens the independence of charities, making them less inclined to criticise Government policy. In fact, there is a sense that there is a deeper problem. There is a risk that Governments could fund or create pressures groups with the intention of seeking to create a sock puppet version of civil society by giving the illusion of grass-roots support for new legislation. That has become widespread and even has a special name: Astroturfing. We all know that grass-roots campaigns being set up and “Astroturfed” is increasingly an issue, so much so that it has become part of our dictionary.

--- Later in debate ---

[Charlie Elphicke]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making a case that I have made in the past. Government Front Benchers are listening and I hope they will consider introducing tougher restrictions on the abuse of public funds, so that all of us who care passionately about taxpayer value and reducing taxes, cutting the deficit further and faster, and reining in waste and excessive public spending are able to ensure that our constituents get better value for money from the Government and that their money is not misspent, but spent on the social purposes for which this House votes.

[Mrs McGuire]

I fear that the hon. Gentleman does not understand the financial reporting that charities have to undertake in this country. The reality is that if a charity has a service level agreement or project agreement, those funds cannot be used for any purpose other than that to which they are contracted. His case is falling apart the longer he stays on his feet.

Finance (No. 4) Bill

Debate between Anne McGuire and Charlie Elphicke

Monday 16th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs McGuire]

The problem is that the measure was paraded as a bit of camouflage for the reduction in tax for those earning more than £150,000 a year. On the one hand, the Chancellor was reducing tax for the wealthiest, but he was also going to attempt to clobber them. This policy did not come from the heart; it was part of the camouflage being used in the Budget.

There has also been a general sleight of hand over taxation. The Chancellor recently stated that he was “shocked” by how little the wealthy paid in taxes, yet this Budget gives a tax cut to the 14,000 people who earn £1 million a year or more. That will give them about £40,000 each year, while the average family with children earning just £20,000 will lose £253 a year from this April. That is on top of the VAT rise, which is costing the average family £450 a year. Furthermore, another 678,000 people of all ages who are currently paying the basic rate of income tax might feel pretty aggrieved when they wake up to discover that they have been catapulted into the 40p income tax rate, not because they are earning massively more but because the Chancellor has not raised the threshold in line with inflation—[Interruption.] I do not know whether I am interrupting a kind of confab of the horizontal speaking to the vertical on the other side of the Chamber, but I will continue, having drawn attention to the significant noise coming from the other side.

The Treasury forecasts suggest that there will be 5.7 million higher rate taxpayers by the end of this Parliament. That is nearly double the 3.1 million at the time of the last general election and treble the number when Labour came to power in 1997. Of course the whole increase in personal allowance that has been paraded here today is outweighed by the VAT rises, the changes to tax credits and the higher petrol duties. As my hon. Friend the shadow Chief Secretary demonstrated earlier, the average family with children will be worse off—not on the basis of our figures, but on the basis of those of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The Chief Secretary’s answer to my hon. Friend was both evasive and complacent.

According to Citizens Advice, poorer families that get housing and council tax benefits will be just £33 a year better off when the tax threshold rises because as their income goes up, their benefits go down. For every person eligible to pay tax who also receives housing or council tax benefit, the Department for Work and Pensions will claw back some £187 of the £220 notional annual gain. The Citizens Advice chief executive, Gillian Guy, said:

“Raising the personal tax allowance is an empty gesture for struggling families on low wages who get housing and council tax benefits. For these families, the weekly gain is less than the price of a loaf of bread”.

In the name of simplification, the Chancellor launched his £3 billion tax raid on pensioners over the next four years. The freeze in the personal allowance for pensioners will see 4.4 million pensioners who pay income tax losing an average of £83 a year from next April. People who turn 65 after next year will, of course, lose most—up to £322 a year. The additional age allowance was introduced in the 1920s in recognition of the fact that those who have retired do not have the same capacity to increase their income. It is to the undying shame of the current Chief Secretary—a man for whom I once had some respect when he was a Liberal spokesperson on welfare issues—that he came forward today to try to justify taking money from those pensioners who have no other means of increasing their income, telling them that he was doing it in the interest of simplification.

[Charlie Elphicke]

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

[Mrs McGuire]

I would love to give way to the hon. Gentleman.

[Charlie Elphicke]

I do hope the right hon. Lady will forgive me for breaking into her ad hominem attacks on just about every Government Member, but I point out to her that no pensioner loses any money whatever under these proposals because of the increase in the basic state pension that the Government have put in place.

[Mrs McGuire]

Frankly, the increase in the state pension came about because inflation was at 5.2% in September and the Government could not get out of it. I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman worked for Grant Thornton when he was a tax accountant, but Mike Warburton of Grant Thornton said:

“The Chancellor is allowing age allowances to wither on the vine. He is effectively phasing them out but there is always a price to pay for simplicity.”

The burden will fall on pensioners with below average incomes. Those are not our words, but those of an eminent firm of chartered accountants.

[Charlie Elphicke]

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

[Mrs McGuire]

No, I have been generous enough with the hon. Gentleman.

Also hidden in the statement was the announcement that there would be a further cut in the DWP’s welfare budget. I do not know how many people heard the Chancellor slide over the fact that there was going to be a £10 billion cut in the DWP budget. He did not say where it was coming from; it was left hanging in the air. He made a passing reference to his colleague, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and to what a wonderful job he would do in cutting £10 billion. Where is that £10 billion going to come from? Will Ministers cut the carer’s allowance? Will they make further reductions in housing benefit for those in work as well as those who are out of work? Will there be a further erosion of support for disabled people, including disabled children? Will the Treasury freeze state pensions? Ten billion pounds will not come out of thin air. It will have to be paid for, but so far we have been given no details, or even a broad-brush indication of where it will come from.

My hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith) made some valuable points about the stimulation of growth. It is worth comparing what the present Government have done with some of the steps taken by our Government when we were faced with a recession—a global recession, not a recession manufactured in this country. [Interruption.] Did I hear a voice from somewhere?

Capital Gains Tax (Rates)

Debate between Anne McGuire and Charlie Elphicke

Monday 28th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mrs McGuire]

rose—

[Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

rose—