Hughes warns against pact U-turn

25th June 2010

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes said that he would back the Finance Bill, but would look for ways to amend the coalition's flagship legislation in order to make Britain "fairer".

He said there must be no attempt to "unpick" the agreement between the coalition government parties.

Simon Hughes said there could be "trouble" if ministers in the Tory-Lib Dem alliance tried to go back on commitments such as the winter fuel allowance for the elderly.

He expressed concern at the "press speculation" that certain items were "clearly unaffordable and should be dropped."

"I say to my friends, there's no issue between us, but the coalition deal is a deal and what has been agreed must stand - and there cannot be any unpicking of items in that deal, otherwise the whole thing risks falling apart," he said.

"The deal has to be that we go down the committed road - we signed up and the Conservatives signed up, all compromising where appropriate - and that must stand.

"If there's any suggestion that it changes, there clearly would be trouble."

Opening the debate, climate change secretary Chris Huhne claimed the Budget would enable the UK to move to "a new type of economy" and heralded a shift comparable to "the biggest changes in our economic history".

Huhne told MPs that the chancellor's financial statement provided a "framework" for a future that would be "more resilient to shocks, will be jobs-rich and will provide genuine prosperity, employment and profit for British businesses".

He also argued that a "profound change must take place in our economy over the next 10 years... the transition of our economy - the third, or green, revolution - to being powered from low-carbon sources".

Huhne cited measures in the Budget such as the establishment of the Green Investment Bank and "a commitment to remodelling the climate change levy" as steps in this direction.

Labour MP Toby Perkins argued that "environmentalists were deeply disappointed that there were not more green taxes".

Huhne conceded that the Budget's "focus was inevitably on averting a fiscal crisis".

But he said the coalition was committed to securing "a rise in revenue from green taxes" in future Budgets.

Shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband dismissed Huhne's arguments.

"The right honourable gentleman waxed lyrical about green industries, but he can point to nothing in the Budget that will support the green industries of the future," he said.

Calling on Lib Dem MPs to vote against the Budget, Miliband claimed that the party faced "the ultimate choice between power and principle".

He said: "They did not come into politics to raise VAT, freeze child benefit or do all those other things.

"That is why they should vote down this unfair, unjust Tory Budget that will damage our economy and divide our society."

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