| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8.19 pm
Mr. Matthew Banks (Southport): The Labour party has come a long way in this Parliament: I recall that, several years ago, we would listen to the sharp wit of the right hon. Member for Glasgow, Garscadden (Mr. Dewar) or the dulcet tones of the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Smith), and we would have one or more votes on the orders; now, the Labour party asks the usual channels for a full day's debate and can barely come up with one or two speakers. It is pathetic.
I do not do this often, but if I might presume to give my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester (Mr. Brandreth) some advice as he sits quietly and attentively on the Front Bench, perhaps next year, when we are returned to office, when the usual channels on the Opposition side ask for a full day's debate, they might be asked a little more searchingly whether they will be able to come up with any speakers.
Almost in her opening sentence, the hon. Member for Peckham (Ms Harman) told us that we would not be having a vote tonight. In 1994, the Labour party told its Back Benchers not to vote, but about 50 or 60 of them did so. I believe that the hon. Member for Cambridge (Mrs. Campbell) was among them. The hon. Member for Kingswood (Mr. Berry) did not bother to stay on that occasion.
It is enormously sad when, in a debate such as this, on issues that are enormously important to the less well-off and the less fortunate in our society, so few Opposition Members seek to catch your eye, Madam Deputy Speaker, or stay throughout the debate.
I represent a seaside constituency that is possibly in the top 10 in the country for the proportion of elderly people, and senior citizens regularly come to me with problems such as those described by the hon. Member for Rochdale (Ms Lynne). I do not agree with everything she said, but I want to home in on her point about the importance of citizens advice bureaux. I pay tribute to Margaret Wilson, the manager of the bureau in Southport, and her colleagues, who do such a splendid job, as a result of which fewer people need to see me at my advice session than would otherwise be the case.
The hon. Members for Peckham and for Rochdale both said that we might not have a Division later, although some of us are far too cautious to rush away, but if the matters are not contentious, as the hon. Member for Rochdale suggested, why did she vote against one of the orders last year? This is not the first such debate that I have spoken in. Looking back in the Official Report over several years, I have noticed that, during a Division in 1994, I raised a point of order expressing disbelief that Opposition Members could vote against the annual uprating of social security benefits.
The hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn) got a little hot under the collar in suggesting that my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester, North (Mr. Jenkin) had some interest to declare. Of course my hon. Friend had,
as always, acted perfectly properly. If I have an interest to declare, it is that I am in receipt of a social security benefit, and perhaps in a moment I might draw on my personal experiences to underline the point made by the hon. Members for Rochdale and for Peckham about the plight of war pensioners.
War pensioners are often somewhat abused in the political arena, and we see far too many crocodile tears. If we were to target resources away from another group to pay war pensioners more, it would not necessarily mean that we were targeting them on those in greatest need. War pensioners are not necessarily 65 or older; many are considerably younger than me.
My hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts), who has had such an influence on Conservative thinking over the years, touched on the importance of younger people making private provision well in advance for their retirement. My hon. Friend the Member for Teignbridge (Mr. Nicholls) said that, at the moment, three to four people were paying taxes to cover the pensions of those in retirement, that early in the 21st century it would go down to about two to one, and that in the not-too-distant future far more people would be in retirement than in work paying taxes to look after them.
All too often, we hear constituents saying that they have paid their dues. It is difficult to explain to them that their national insurance contributions do not come anywhere near paying for the pensions they receive. It is therefore important for our younger constituents to think carefully about saving and contributing to private pension schemes.
I endorse the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Havant about over-regulation in the City. We need a sensible and appropriate form of regulation in the pensions industry, but it should not be over-restrictive. In a previous career with Barclays bank, I came across people who had money--not necessarily a great deal--sitting around in accounts, that could have been better used, but they were frightened of the regulations, or found it difficult to make choices because of the complexity of the pensions industry.
We heard earlier about the enthusiasm with which the Labour party would like to impose a windfall tax, if it ever got the chance. Such a tax would affect not the so-called fat cats but many of our constituents on the most modest means, who would have to pay higher gas, electricity or water bills. It would affect those on the benefits that the orders will uprate.
The more we hear about a windfall tax, the less the public are fooled. The public are not fools; they know that somebody will have to pay, and that those with money--at the upper echelons, as was said earlier--will manage to avoid it. People much further down the scale--those we are trying to get out of the poverty trap--would be most affected.
It is important to target resources to help those in greatest need to get back to work. All too often, constituents say, "If only we could have a little bit more help. It really isn't worth my while taking a full-time job, because I'm going to lose this benefit or that money."
I pay tribute to the Government's efforts to boost family credit whenever possible, which has been such a valuable asset in helping people back to work. I believe that the most is given where the need is greatest. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will be able to tell us later how much support we are giving to how many people through family credit.
It would be devastating if we had not just a windfall tax, but the ravages of the social chapter and the minimum wage, with all its difficulties of pay differentials. Some Opposition Members may want a minimum wage for all the best reasons, but I sometimes think from listening to them that it is merely the politics of envy. However, I will leave that to one side.
Under a minimum wage, those who received increases in their pay might not be those in work on the lowest pay rates. It is rather like arguing for council house sales receipts to be spent, but finding that those receipts are in places such as Malvern Hills district council--where there is not the greatest need to spend money on housing.
I represent a seaside resort, and I shall mention two issues to illustrate how the matters to which I have alluded would affect my constituency. As in other seaside resorts, we have slightly higher than average unemployment, and seasonal unemployment. Many people who are not originally from Southport drift in from the hinterland, and sometimes from hundreds of miles away--some people have come to my surgery from as far away as Kent. Recently, the single regeneration budget has provided an investment of £8.9 million--which has brought in a further £31 million from the private sector--to revamp the town centre, develop a sea wall, provide new housing and enable other regeneration plans to come to fruition.
On a subject close to my heart--it is one of which the Minister will be aware--the money will help us to undertake our review of local government so that we can become a county borough again. All this is intended to boost the local economy and local jobs. What would happen if we had a minimum wage and a windfall tax? They would decimate all the good work that we have achieved in this Parliament. We are trying to rebuild the tourist infrastructure in the town, but I am immensely worried that, under a Labour Government, there would be nothing for my constituents except greater unemployment.
In one of the seven wards in my constituency--those who know Southport know that that it is only seven miles long by one mile wide--there are 70 nursing homes. What would happen to low-paid workers if Labour came to power and implemented a minimum wage? It would decimate the number of jobs available. It is bad enough being ruled by the Labour party--aided and abetted by the Liberal Democrats--from Bootle, but it would be devastating if we had a Labour Government to go with it.
The hon. Member for Peckham said that people are having to sell their homes to provide care for themselves. In my local authority area, the Government have given extra money from emergency contingency reserves not just once, but twice to deal with what might be described as a unique problem of care for the elderly and bed blocking. But none of the money provided by the Government for those who have savings of £16,000 and under has been spent on the very people that the Government sought to help.
That underlines the fact that my authority--effectively run by the Labour party--has one of the worst records in the country in looking after the elderly. The hon. Lady was quite wrong to suggest that, as a result of Government policy, people have had to sell their homes.
It is important to continue to combat fraud. My hon. Friend the Member for Teignbridge referred to roads protesters, and I too believe that it is utterly disgraceful
that people who are frankly not available for work may well be claiming benefit. I hope that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and other Ministers will continue to take initiatives to crack down on bogus claimants. In my constituency--which is predominantly elderly and middle-class--most people have little in the way of savings, but have worked hard all their lives and scrimped and saved for their retirement. Every pound we save by combating fraud is a pound that we must spend on those in the greatest need.
I return to the subject of war pensions. War pensioners seem to be almost flavour of the month with some Opposition politicians. During the recent by-election in Yorkshire, the Liberal Democrats ran a campaign targeted almost solely on war pensioners, and the hon. Member for Peckham said today that the Government were not doing enough for war pensioners. I am living proof of the fact that war pensioners are not all terribly old buffers--although some may be--or senior citizens of pensionable age.
War pensions are benefits given to people who have an injury of one kind or another. Opposition Members who seek to boost the benefit in real terms--by a figure that they have not yet told us--should realise that that will not necessarily put more money into the pockets of those who need it the most. In an earlier intervention, I suggested--in a tongue-in-cheek fashion--that, if I had a pound for every war pension I had gained for my constituents during this Parliament, I would be a fairly wealthy young man. One of my hon. Friends said that I am not a young man, but I am in comparison with him.
Boosting war pensions by giving people more money depending on their percentage of disability does not necessarily target people as well as I would like. I pay tribute to the Government on this matter. It is not a case of demand exceeding supply, as the Government have provided extra resources for tribunals to look after the enormous number of people who--as a result of the publicity given to war pensions by the Department of Social Security--have made an application.
I will not comment in detail on the issue of people with hearing impediments, although my hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disabled People may think it appropriate to do so in winding up. However, it has been a great success for the Government's social security policy.
I have one constructive criticism on war pensions, and I believe that it has been addressed during this Parliament. On the day of the general election in 1983, I was evacuated to a military hospital. I watched the election results on television, and it was that night that I said to myself that, if I could not stay where I was, politics was what I would try to do. Some years later, Madam Deputy Speaker, you are stuck with me.
It took a long time for me to claim, be assessed and have the advantage of a 20 per cent. disability pension, and I received between £90 and £100 per month tax-free. If one compares my take-home pay with that of one of my constituents who may have next to nothing, one sees the difference.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |