Finance Bill

My hon. Friend makes a telling point. I shall come back to the Liberal Democrats and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. I am sorry that he is not in his place. It would be interesting to hear him defend what he said. It was put to him by Andrew Marr on the BBC, "How is it that your party fought the election opposed to VAT and now you are in a coalition which is increasing VAT?" It is something that the Tories always do because they want to take money from the poor to give to the rich, which is what VAT effectively does, as we will see. He was asked if he was embarrassed by his party's election posters. We have seen the poster this evening in the House. As reported in the Daily Mail, the Secretary of State responded:""We were only trying to score a point against the Conservatives, if you like. Okay, well that was in the election. We have now moved past the election."" I know, Mr Hancock, that you will tell me that it is unparliamentary for a Member to suggest that another Member has deceived the House, yet the Secretary of State was quite happy to say that he had deceived the public. I do not know whether it is parliamentary language for me to say it, but he himself said that he deceived the public as part of the game. I do not regard politics or elections as a game. I believe you should do as you say, and say as you do. That is how I was brought up in Yorkshire. I thought the Lib Dems aspired to the values of progressive politics. The saintly Vince—as he was then being called—could have said that circumstances had changed, but for him to say that it was perfectly okay to practise a deception on the electorate in the run-up to the election and then to reverse his position afterwards is hardly saintly, to say the least. I am sure that is something that can be said in a parliamentary context.