Member

The noble Lord, Lord Londesborough, has been indefatigable during the progress of this Bill and, for all the reasons he has given, I believe we should all support his amendment. The British Business Bank tells us there are 5.5 million small businesses in the UK. They employ 16 million people and—I hope the Minister will take this point well—they contribute massively to economic growth, which we know is the number one priority. That is something I think there is a wide measure of agreement on. So why will the Minister not roll up his sleeves and work with the noble Lord, Lord Londesborough, to protect smaller SMEs from the impact of this Bill? I believe that more can be done to fix this. We feel very strongly that the Government should consider further steps to support SMEs beyond the welcome, but very modest, employment allowance, and that is why we will support the noble Lord, Lord Londesborough, if he chooses to test the opinion of the House.