Finance Bill

Okay; three. The charity said:"““A 20% VAT rate means that the poorest parents will see their VAT bill rise to at least £1,600 a year—affecting already overstretched budgets—and driving some into the arms of loan sharks””," as my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh) has just mentioned. The fourth and final claim in the Liberal Democrat leaflet is that they stopped"““Tory plans for a huge Inheritance Tax give-away for the wealthy.””" Even if we accept that claim—I do not—the omission of that give-away from the Bill pales in comparison with the appallingly regressive overall impact of the Budget, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies and others have looked into. It has calculated that the total effect of the tax rises and spending cuts will cost the average family in the top income decile £1,135 a year. It will cost the average family in the bottom income decile £1,344—£209 more in real terms. The poorest will be 20.5% worse off, and the richest will be 1.6% worse off. So when it comes to social justice, the Government have absolutely nothing to boast about. The suggestion made in the leaflet that those who are on low incomes should rejoice at the fairness of a budget that places a larger real-terms burden on the poorest than the richest is an utter disgrace. What is even more disgraceful is the fact that the measures in the Bill and the emergency Budget were a choice. Whatever rewriting of history the coalition indulges in, it cannot distract us from a simple fact: the coalition Government have actively chosen to do this to my community.