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Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. We cannot have so many conversations in the Chamber. The hon. Gentleman is addressing the House.
Mr. Hoyle: Obviously, Conservative Members do not want to listen to the truth, but that is not a worry.
I was talking about new jobs for Chorley and a new commitment to Chorley, and the use of a brown-field site--not a green-field site--as a flagship for the north-west. We believe that the site will generate 15,000 jobs in the next five years--jobs lost at Royal Ordnance as a result of the previous Government's lack of commitment to defence.
Mr. Francis Maude (Horsham):
For the avoidance of doubt, and for the benefit of Labour Members who take an excessive interest in such matters, I declare the modest interests disclosed in the register, in case anyone thinks that they are relevant.
We have just heard a tirade from the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) about listening to the truth. That is a plea of which we want to take notice, because we have not heard much in the way of truth in the presentation of the Budget. It is probably the most dishonest Budget in living memory.
The only thing that mattered to the Chancellor last Tuesday was the next day's headlines. He claimed that it was a Budget for families while abolishing the last recognition of marriage in the tax system, and then had the insolence to claim that the married couple's allowance is not a recognition of marriage. He claimed that it was a Budget for enterprise, while increasing tax on business by £3.2 billion. He claimed that it was a Budget for tax cuts, when taxes go on rising by stealth.
The Chancellor even spent taxpayers' money writing a propaganda leaflet that was meant to explain the Budget to ordinary people but failed even to mention that the 20p tax rate had been scrapped and MIRAS abolished. The only surprise is that only 50,000 of the leaflets had to be pulped. That gives a whole new dimension to the phrase "pulp fiction".
The Chancellor is guilty of Budget mis-selling and the Budget did nothing to reverse Labour's huge tax increases. Labour's lies on tax will catch up with them. Those people who drive, save, are married, have mortgages, are self-employed, have company cars, want to buy a house or smoke will all lose. People from all walks of life will lose from the Budget and will soon feel betrayed by a Government who claim that taxes are going down when they know that they are going up and who deliberately say that families are paying less tax when they know that they are paying more. A week on and, sure enough, the Budget is coming apart at the seams.
Let us look at what the experts are saying. The Automobile Association says that the Chancellor's tax plans are based on
The first piece of dishonesty was that the Chancellor concealed the massive increase in the overall level of tax under Labour. The Prime Minister does not want us to remember it now, but, before the election, he promised the country that he had
We commissioned the Library to calculate how much higher taxes will be over the course of this Parliament. The answer is £40.7 billion. [Interruption.] That seems to be a surprise to Labour Members. It is not surprising that they did not know that, because the Chancellor said nothing about it. [Interruption.]
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
Order. I cannot have any shouting in the Chamber. I am looking at Mr. McNulty. You have to be quiet, Mr. McNulty. I do not want to hear you.
Mr. Maude:
Taxes were up by nearly £6 billion in the first year of the Government and by nearly £8 billion in the second year. They will be up by £7.1 billion this coming year, by £10.5 billion in 2000-01, and by £9.3 billion in the year after that. The Government are giving a little with one hand while they take back much more with the other. Every tax reduction announced by the Chancellor with such a fanfare was cancelled out by a stealth tax increase hidden away in the fine print.
Taxes will be £7.1 billion higher next year as a direct result of Labour, but the Government will not admit it. The Prime Minister was asked a simple question by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition on Wednesday, the day after the Budget. He asked:
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
Order. I cannot allow the right hon. Gentleman to say that any hon. Member misled the House. Perhaps he will reconsider that.
Mr. Maude:
I am sure that, if the Prime Minister has inadvertently misled the House, he would want to come
The answer to the question asked by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition--easily arrived at--was £7.1 billion. The Prime Minister responded:
Mr. Derek Twigg (Halton):
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Maude:
No. I have little time. I cut my time to allow the hon. Member for Chorley to speak, and that was a mistake.
Anatole Kaletsky in The Times wrote of the Prime Minister's answer:
"spurious arguments that do not stand up to scrutiny."
The Freight Transport Association described the Budget as "crass" and "crazy". The Federation of Small Businesses said that it
"completely missed the target where the majority of small firms were concerned."
Anatole Kaletsky--not a supporter of the Conservative party, and frequently a supporter of the Government--said in The Times:
"The feverish expectations created by the headlines are going to be disappointed once people open their pay slips and penetrate the veils of deception so skilfully flourished by Mr. Brown. And when people discover that they have been deceived they are apt to get angry."
Graham Searjeant in the same newspaper said:
"The fatal flaw in Mr. Brown is behind the cloying parade of virtue, he is just another clever confidence trickster . . . the last Budget of the millennium was made by the last great conman of the millennium."
The British Chambers of Commerce warned of a
"£20 bn penalty from the 'smoke and mirrors' Chancellor".
15 Mar 1999 : Column 798
The BBC's economics correspondent said:
It was not in the Chancellor's speech. The Economist's description of the Chancellor's addiction to meddling with, and complicating, the tax system was
"this much is clear. Labour has increased taxes and are continuing to raise them. It's in black and white in the . . . Treasury Budget documents".
"Bubble, bubble, toil and muddle".
That point was made very well by my right hon. Friend the Member for Fylde (Mr. Jack). The article continued:
"The biggest losers under Mr Brown have been businesses and pension funds".
Even the New Statesman, the Government's house journal, said that, under this Government, there is
"no taxation without stealth . . . Behind the glittering presentation he gave us an almost neutral Budget".
Of course, taken with the past two Budgets, that means that taxes are going up.
"no plans to increase tax at all".
What did he mean by that? What did the Chancellor take him to mean by that? Labour's first two Budgets increased taxes by more than £40 billion over the course of this Parliament. It is now clear that, behind the gimmicks and headlines, the Budget did nothing to reverse those big tax increases.
"what is the total tax increase for the coming year"?
I am not surprised that the Chancellor casts his eyes up to heaven, because he knows that the Prime Minister got it wrong and misled the House. The Prime Minister should come back to the House and put the record straight.
"There is a net tax cut of £4.5 billion."--[Official Report, 10 March 1999; Vol. 327, c. 358.]
That is utter rubbish. It is so far out of line with the truth that it makes one wonder whether the Prime Minister actually understands the figures at all.
"this was simply false. As shown unambiguously in the Government's own Budget statement, taxes have risen in each of the past two years and will rise even more in the next financial year".
It is not only true that taxes are going up under Labour. The Budget also failed to come clean on the fact that many more people will pay income tax in the coming financial year as a direct result of measures taken by the Government.
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