Dan Tomlinson

If the Conservatives had credible plans and a credible history of reining in welfare spending, then I would, of course, be interested in taking them seriously. However, it was the shadow Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Sir Mel Stride), who was the Work and Pensions Secretary when the welfare budget exploded. We are now trying to get on top of that. I will not address new clauses 15 to 19 directly. The Government have set out our position on them at previous stages, although I do urge the House to reject them today. I will now turn to the points raised by the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister) around amendments 112 to 139, which would have the effect of removing the distinction between the options available in respect of “specified Northern Ireland companies” and other companies from clauses 13, 14 and 15. The hon. and learned Gentleman has made his views known very clearly both today and on Second Reading. I will make the same point that the Economic Secretary to the Treasury made on Second Reading: as he will be aware—although he did not, I believe, mention this in his speech —service companies are able to benefit from the increase in the threshold. It is the Government’s understanding that there are very few, if any, goods and electricity companies in Northern Ireland that are close to the current enterprise management incentive limits, and we therefore think there will be minimal impact from these companies being subject to the previous scheme limits.