Danny Kruger

I do not accept for a second that cutting VAT on hospitality would not be of great benefit to those businesses. I am astonished to hear that the IFS might have said such a thing. VAT is one of the major costs that businesses have to carry, so clearly a cut in what is essentially a sales tax for retail businesses would be helpful. I will speak briefly about the challenge of the cost of living and energy costs in particular, because the issue for retail businesses like the Polly is not just about the costs that they have to carry; it is about the demand for their business being reduced because of the cost of living that customers are carrying, as Mr Clarke said in the statement I read out. What the Government should do is not simply give people more money to spend, but ensure a stable economy and a stable society, and then leave people with more of their own money that they can spend on our high streets. That is why my party proposes raising the personal allowance for individual taxpayers to £15,000. That would be a tax cut of £500 per person for over 40 million people in this country. On the point made by the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur), I say that we would take £250 off household energy bills, which is the right response to the accelerating energy costs that have been caused not just by global instability but by Labour’s obsession with net zero.