Finance Bill

We are in quite a fast-moving area, and the progress that has been made in recent months has been considerable. Just at the beginning of this year, it looked unlikely that a deal would be possible, but now it looks as though the EU is heading in that direction. As I have said, the EU Commissioner has said that something is likely to happen by the end of this year. I must add the slight caveat that we will have a new Prime Minister by then, but it is certainly my view that if we have not made progress by this time next year on reaching a multilateral agreement, we will need to look carefully at the issue once again. I do not want to make a full commitment on this because—I am standing here desperately with the Dispatch Box as a source of support—I might no longer be in this position by then. I make that caveat, but I believe that there is every chance of an agreement. I would be disappointed if we did not make progress, but in the event of that happening—I hope it is unlikely—we would need to look at this again. I suspect that there is agreement between us here that it would be better for us to get a multilateral agreement than for us to go off alone.