Sir Mel Stride

My hon. Friend is right to suggest that we have become an economy that has closed the door on international investment. In fact, the door has been blown wide open by those fleeing to go to the United Arab Emirates, Milan and other places around the world to escape the high-tax jurisdiction that we have become, and it comes with great cost. Given the 16,000 high net worth individuals who have fled under this Government, about a third of a million to half a million people on average earnings would probably be needed to cover the tax that has just walked out of the door. I can also tell the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan) and others that we will reverse the APR and BPR changes if we form the next Government. I will now make swift progress. Let me just say that the wrong choices have been made. Tax should not be going up and spending should not be going up in this way, and I do not even believe that the Chancellor’s heart is in the benefit changes that have occurred, including the two-child benefit cap change. If it were, why was the Whip removed from several Labour Members? The reality is that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor are lashed to the same mast. This is all about their survival. They lost control of their own Back Benchers. Let me go back to Shakespeare, and “The Tempest”. The storm has no respect for rank, so they pitch and roll solely at the command of those behind them. The great man also wrote: “All the world’s a stage…And one man in his time plays many parts”. However, this Chancellor has played but one part, that of recklessness. At heart, she has taxed that which is good, and in this Bill she has incentivised that which is not. By so doing, with this Bill she will diminish us all.