Corporation Tax Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to both noble Lords for their constructive contributions. The noble Lord, Lord Newby, is worthy of the prize. I know that he has done a great deal more than I have with regard to the rewrite Bills and what I have done seems quite enough. Indeed, having two Bills in the space of seven days is quite enough for all of us who are interested in these matters. I apologise for being unable to introduce, apart from the Corporation Tax Bill itself, any new subject matter to assist my articulation of the case for it, not least because this is a rewrite and all the credit goes to those who have done the hard work and prepared the Bill in such a way that we get the benefits from the clarification and from the succinct nature of the legislation without there being anything controversial to disturb us. That, after all, is their remit, which they have fulfilled so very well. We pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Newby—I was pleased that he was in his place last week—for his work as chair of the committee. I am with the noble Baroness today in saying how much we appreciate his work and that of others. The noble Baroness was kind enough to offer a self-denying ordinance on politics, saying that she would not go through a demolition of the Government’s position last week. One of the reasons why I was rather anticipating that she would not go through a demolition of the Government’s position on this last week was that the Government’s position holds up very strongly to any examination. I am therefore not entirely surprised that she showed a degree of forbearance in that area. Forbearance was of course not extended to other areas with regard to this issue. I cannot imagine when a Conservative Chancellor is ever likely to have such an opportunity—certainly not the present shadow Chancellor, I would have thought. Let us, however, take the noble Lord, Lord Newby, into his dream world for a moment, or into the dream world of the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, and imagine that there is a Conservative Chancellor. Can noble Lords imagine him introducing the Bill and saying, "Of course, the House will appreciate that our taxation system bears favourable comparison not with G7 countries or even with G20 countries but with some emerging economies"? Can anyone seriously say that that is how the comparative model works? I do not know what these emerging economies might be; a Conservative Administration are so far away that it might be the Turks and Caicos, the Cayman Islands or somewhere like that. Certainly, however, that would not bear any great reality in relation to what we should be comparing our taxation system to—namely, our major sophisticated, advanced competitors. That is the evidence that I gave last week, which the noble Baroness disagreed with, and I am having the greatest difficulty in stretching myself to accepting her contention this week. This is not, however, a moment for political controversy. Let us rejoice in the work of others who have done so very well and let us forgo our normal exchanges in appreciation of that work. We are joined in a constructive enterprise that we all recognise is of value to our fellow citizens. Accordingly, I hope that, with the support of the noble Lords opposite, this Bill may now be read a second time. Bill read a second time. Committee negatived. Standing Order 47 having been dispensed with, the Bill was read a third time and passed. Sitting suspended.