Finance Bill

I shall answer that point specifically because I believe in being honest. For the last two years I worked in No. 10 and I can say that all kinds of options were reviewed, but at the end of the day the Government took the collective view that it would not be right to raise VAT. That was the decision they made. The then Chancellor said in the House, when he was making last year's pre-Budget report, that he had looked at the VAT option and rejected it. I remind the House that no Labour Government have ever increased VAT. We stand on our record. The reason was given by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton who pointed out how regressive VAT is.