Sorcha Eastwood
Main Page: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)Department Debates - View all Sorcha Eastwood's debates with the HM Treasury
(1 day, 10 hours ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. I am sorry, but this question should be about Northern Ireland.
Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)
I thank the Minister for his response. I have to declare an interest because I started a parliamentary petition exactly on a VAT cut for hospitality in Northern Ireland, the reason being that we have the Republic of Ireland with its very competitive VAT rate right up against us. Businesses saw the official Government response, because that petition got over 10,000 signatures, and they felt very despondent. I am sure that Treasury Ministers and the Chancellor will want to join me in trying to do everything we can to protect our hospitality sector. The Minister says this is complex to do, but would he agree with me that it is worth revisiting that idea?
Dan Tomlinson
This is a complex change to implement, but the Government’s position is that it is right to have the same rate of VAT across our country. During the pandemic, there was a cut—a temporary cut—to the rate of VAT and that came at the significant cost of £8 billion. We have to make sure that we can raise revenue from across the country in a fair and consistent way to support the public finances.