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Opposition day on Wednesday, 16 July 2008, in the House of Commons, led by Lord Hammond of Runnymede. The answering member was Yvette Cooper.

Fuel Duty

Fuel duty. Seventeenth opposition day debate (part 2). Main question negatived on division (340 to 175). Amendment agreed to on question.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
479 c316-67 
Session
2007-08
Department
Treasury
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
John Howell | 479 c344-6 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech. The pressure ...
Speaker | 479 c316 (Link to this contribution) I advise Members that Mr. Speaker has selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister and i...
Show all contributions (148)
Justine Greening | 479 c362 (Link to this contribution) On the Government's policy, how much will the 2p delayed duty rise cost the Exchequer?
Angela Eagle | 479 c362 (Link to this contribution) The Red Book figures demonstrate that the cost is £550 million. Since the beginning of this year, t...
Angela Eagle | 479 c362 (Link to this contribution) No; I have only two minutes left. Retailers would be likely to stop smoothing the impact of oil pri...
Justine Greening | 479 c359-60 (Link to this contribution) Actually, it sounds like a response from a Treasury Minister who has no realistic alternative of her...
Angela Eagle | 479 c360-2 (Link to this contribution) This has been an interesting debate and I am grateful to all hon. Members who contributed to it. In ...
Justine Greening | 479 c359 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman raises a fair point. The reason for going through a consultation process is to en...
Angela Eagle | 479 c359 (Link to this contribution) The Tory document, under the heading ““Questions for consultation””, asks"““how frequently changes i...
Lord Robathan | 479 c363 (Link to this contribution) rose in place and claimed to move, That the Question be now put. Question, That the Question be now...
Lord Redwood | 479 c353-5 (Link to this contribution) That is a good example of my general point. Anyone who knows the haulage industry knows that on many...
Stewart Hosie | 479 c355-6 (Link to this contribution) I enjoyed the maiden speech of the hon. Member for Henley (John Howell). He is in the extraordinary ...
Justine Greening | 479 c357-9 (Link to this contribution) I guess that, first of all, I should pay tribute to my new hon. Friend, the Member for Henley (John ...
Alan Reid | 479 c359 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Lady explain how long the gaps will be between now and the adjustments taking place? I...
David Leslie Taylor | 479 c353 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman talks about the comparative costs of haulage in other European countries. A...
Lord Redwood | 479 c353 (Link to this contribution) I think that the hon. Gentleman will find that as regards most of those cost areas there is an advan...
Edward Timpson | 479 c353 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that the situation is much more unsustainable for hauliers in this c...
Lord Redwood | 479 c351-3 (Link to this contribution) The issue before the House today is of consummate importance to businesses throughout the country an...
Maria Miller | 479 c349-51 (Link to this contribution) It is a great honour to speak in the same debate as my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howel...
Nigel Griffiths | 479 c348-9 (Link to this contribution) No, as I am afraid I shall be in injury time if I give way again. The country wants a credible alte...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c348 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman accept that a fuel duty stabiliser along the lines that we have set out woul...
Nigel Griffiths | 479 c348 (Link to this contribution) I shall tell the hon. Gentleman how it would work, if it would work at all, and that is if the oil p...
Nigel Griffiths | 479 c348 (Link to this contribution) That is because the modern Tory party has abandoned the sort of principles that the right hon. Membe...
Lord Redwood | 479 c348 (Link to this contribution) Why does not the hon. Gentleman refer to the report on economic policy that I chaired, which made it...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c328 (Link to this contribution) It is funny that the Opposition just forgot to vote when they had a chance to, when the proposal was...
Justine Greening | 479 c328 (Link to this contribution) There is nothing particularly stunning about the fact that we saw a lot of merit in the fact that th...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c329 (Link to this contribution) I notice that later in the debate, when talking about the suggestion that the hon. Member for Dundee...
Rob Marris | 479 c329 (Link to this contribution) May I also point out that the Conservative party's proposal lacks intellectual bravery? If it was in...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c330 (Link to this contribution) I have to choose between giving way to an hon. Member from the party that tabled the motion and givi...
Stewart Hosie | 479 c330 (Link to this contribution) The choice is difficult, I know. I want to bring the Minister back to what she just said about reven...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c329-30 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. In the end, the point is that when setting fuel duty, it is right to look a...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c331 (Link to this contribution) I might engage with the Chief Secretary on that when she has told me where the Crewe and Nantwich £2...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c331 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the hon. Gentleman if he will tell us where that £3 billion would come from.
Yvette Cooper | 479 c331 (Link to this contribution) No; the hon. Gentleman is talking nonsense. We have always been clear that there will be increases i...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c330 (Link to this contribution) When prices rise, particularly the price of things such as fuel, there will be a series of different...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c330 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for giving way to me. The National Institute of Economic and So...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c330-1 (Link to this contribution) Let me tell the hon. Gentleman some of the factors that the National Institute of Economic and Socia...
Alan Reid | 479 c333 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has pre-empted my intervention. I support his comments that remote rural areas need a...
Vincent Cable | 479 c333 (Link to this contribution) Let me finish my point and then I will take interventions. We are especially concerned about the im...
Lord Clarke of Nottingham | 479 c332 (Link to this contribution) Well, I will make one final effort. Does the Chief Secretary really think that a Minister addressing...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c332 (Link to this contribution) I will give way once more, but I have done so many times and I want to make final progress towards t...
Vincent Cable | 479 c332-3 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the debate, partly because it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the statement that the...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c332 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. and learned Gentleman is long enough in the tooth and has been long enough in the Tre...
Vincent Cable | 479 c334-5 (Link to this contribution) That would be one way. Another way would be to check mileage at the points of entry and exit, and to...
Robert Smith | 479 c334 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend mentioned the Britdisc, which the Government abandoned. Does he think that road prici...
Rob Marris | 479 c335 (Link to this contribution) In defence of the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond), I listened to him very care...
Sammy Wilson | 479 c334 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman recognise that the leakage to which he refers is particularly severe in Nort...
Vincent Cable | 479 c334 (Link to this contribution) Let me finish the argument and then I will take an intervention. It is odd that the hon. Member for ...
Vincent Cable | 479 c334 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I realise that Northern Ireland has special problems because it has a land border. Any system t...
Nigel Griffiths | 479 c333 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member and I have corresponded on the issue. Two years ago, the hon. Member for Argyll and ...
Vincent Cable | 479 c333-4 (Link to this contribution) We have found that the policy is feasible in practice and entirely sensible and right. My hon. Frien...
Vincent Cable | 479 c336 (Link to this contribution) That is very helpful, because I have been taken to task for saying exactly that. I am glad to get a ...
Vincent Cable | 479 c336 (Link to this contribution) Indeed there is a by-election. There is a sensible economic case, if not a political one, for waiti...
Vincent Cable | 479 c335-6 (Link to this contribution) That is very helpful. I thank the hon. Gentleman for that clarification and I acknowledge his point....
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c335 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted and grateful that the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) sprang t...
Vincent Cable | 479 c335 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, Canada is another country that is both conscious of the environmental impacts and the need t...
Maria Miller | 479 c336 (Link to this contribution) In telling the House why the Government might do better to dither, is the hon. Gentleman saying that...
Vincent Cable | 479 c336 (Link to this contribution) I did not say that at all. I said I would very much like to wait and see what the position was in th...
Stewart Hosie | 479 c337 (Link to this contribution) We do know that oil prices are going through the roof. We know that the price at the pump is going t...
Vincent Cable | 479 c337 (Link to this contribution) I am all for introducing measures to help if they are practical and affordable. However, I think the...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c337 (Link to this contribution) I think the hon. Gentleman is suggesting some philosophical or moral reason for linking the two, but...
Vincent Cable | 479 c337-8 (Link to this contribution) I am trying to be not philosophical but practical in asking why this should be pooled with other sou...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c338 (Link to this contribution) But surely the hon. Gentleman would acknowledge that holes in the roof need to be fixed while the su...
Vincent Cable | 479 c338-9 (Link to this contribution) In terms of oil revenue, I would have thought that the sun was shining. Is that not the whole point?...
Vincent Cable | 479 c336 (Link to this contribution) I will take one more intervention, and then I will plough on.
Vincent Cable | 479 c340 (Link to this contribution) I have indeed been to Glasgow and I spent the earlier part of my speech suggesting that there are me...
David Chaytor | 479 c340 (Link to this contribution) On that very point, the hon. Gentleman has moved his party's policy along considerably in the past t...
Pete Wishart | 479 c340 (Link to this contribution) We know that the hon. Gentleman does not like the idea of a regulator, a stabiliser or whatever. Wha...
Vincent Cable | 479 c340 (Link to this contribution) In the longer term, a combination of road pricing and fuel duty will be needed. Essentially, however...
Vincent Cable | 479 c340 (Link to this contribution) As we have the vehicle excise duty system, and parking charge systems in certain cities, it seems en...
David Chaytor | 479 c340 (Link to this contribution) But surely that would not send the signals for demand reduction that my right hon. Friend the Chief ...
Vincent Cable | 479 c339 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for the clarification. I may have misunderstood as a result of trying to ...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c339 (Link to this contribution) I have had an exchange of notes with the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West on exactly the sa...
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c342-3 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for clarifying that. If this sort of fuel duty moderator is to w...
Jeremy Browne | 479 c343 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c341-2 (Link to this contribution) I enjoyed the speech of the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable), who made some important points. ...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c342 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure to what extent it applies to the hon. Gentleman's policy, but it certainly applies to ...
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c342 (Link to this contribution) I agree. I do not think that a fuel duty moderator can work if all we are talking about is offsettin...
Stewart Hosie | 479 c342 (Link to this contribution) For the avoidance of doubt, while the value of the offset was the element of the increase that was a...
Rob Marris | 479 c340-1 (Link to this contribution) I want to draw the hon. Gentleman back to the motion and his critique of the Conservative proposals....
Speaker | 479 c341 (Link to this contribution) Order. I remind the House that a 10-minute limit on Back-Bench speeches applies from now.
Nigel Griffiths | 479 c347-8 (Link to this contribution) It was less than it is now, but as the price went up the Conservatives kept the escalator going. Tha...
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c343-4 (Link to this contribution) I need to make a little progress. I have only four minutes left, and no more injury time. A critica...
Jeremy Browne | 479 c343 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c343 (Link to this contribution) What I am suggesting is that the Chancellor should look at the totality of the economy every three m...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c343 (Link to this contribution) I fear that the hon. Gentleman is falling into the trap that he wrongly accused me of falling into e...
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c343 (Link to this contribution) Let me make a little progress. One reason why I consider it necessary is that there are 23 million m...
Pete Wishart | 479 c326 (Link to this contribution) Can the right hon. Lady do something that the Prime Minister failed to do earlier this afternoon and...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c326 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady is right that the announcement will reduce the amount of fuel duty revenue for this ye...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c326-7 (Link to this contribution) As I said, we have set out the information today in exactly the same way as we have done in previous...
Lord Clarke of Nottingham | 479 c326 (Link to this contribution) I find it quite incredible that the Chief Secretary can talk about a tax change that has been announ...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c326 (Link to this contribution) I shall make one more point and then give way. The figures show that fuel duty has risen just three ...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c323-4 (Link to this contribution) Unfortunately, because we have not been given an interim statement from the Government, we do not kn...
Rob Marris | 479 c324 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Jeremy Browne | 479 c323 (Link to this contribution) Given that oil prices have risen by more than the Chancellor predicted at the time of the Budget, wi...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c325-6 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, To leave out from ““House”” to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:"“...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c325 (Link to this contribution) I am finishing now. When times are hard, people look to their Government for leadership. They look ...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c324-5 (Link to this contribution) I do not have a precise answer about the work that has been done in relation to other economies. I h...
Rob Marris | 479 c324 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his usual generosity. He is talking about the research. I do...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c324 (Link to this contribution) At last, the hon. Gentleman! I thought that I was going to get to the end of my speech without his i...
Lord Redwood | 479 c327 (Link to this contribution) The Minister must know that she is hundreds of millions to the good so far this year, given the Budg...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c327 (Link to this contribution) As I have said, we announced today that we are not going ahead with the 2p increase in fuel duty tha...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c327-8 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right to say that the figures that we set out at Budget time for increased rev...
Justine Greening | 479 c328 (Link to this contribution) I shall be delighted to. If my memory serves me correctly, it was on 15 May, at the end of the seven...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c328 (Link to this contribution) I will happily give way if the hon. Lady will point me to the sections of the Committee proceedings ...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c328 (Link to this contribution) It is indeed, and that is why I want to spend some time doing what the Opposition motion asks us to ...
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c319 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c319-20 (Link to this contribution) I will make a little progress because the hon. Gentleman has intervened once already. There is a be...
Lynne Jones | 479 c320 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman, or the shadow Chancellor, be responding to the letters in Monday's edition ...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c318-9 (Link to this contribution) I am going to make a little progress. As usual this year, the Government have dithered and prevaric...
Nigel Griffiths | 479 c319 (Link to this contribution) If the SNP's policy was not, as the hon. Member says, the policy that he is proposing, why did he no...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c318 (Link to this contribution) My recollection is that the measure put forward by the Scottish nationalists in Committee was not as...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c322 (Link to this contribution) We can speculate on why the Government have taken the line that they have. We do not rule out the po...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c321-2 (Link to this contribution) If those comments represent the hon. Gentleman's line of approach, I certainly did not take my ideas...
Lord Redwood | 479 c322 (Link to this contribution) I am glad that my hon. Friend is making this point, because it is idiocy to say that there will be a...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c321 (Link to this contribution) That is slightly wide of the question we are dealing with, but from what I have seen there is no evi...
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c321 (Link to this contribution) I am not going to viciously attack the hon. Gentleman's ideas because I do not think he stole them f...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c320-1 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree. We must also bear in mind that there are downward movements in oil prices as well,...
Jamie Reed | 479 c321 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman believe there is any evidence to suggest that speculation in the markets inc...
Stewart Hosie | 479 c320 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has referred to the environment. Although managed increases such as the Governmen...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c320 (Link to this contribution) We will not take any lectures from Charles Brendon of Exeter College. The hon. Lady may or may not h...
Speaker | 479 c316 (Link to this contribution) I advise Members that Mr. Speaker has selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister and i...
Sion Simon | 479 c318 (Link to this contribution) It is enlightening that the hon. Gentleman manages to pray in aid the Foreign Secretary. The hon. Ge...
Tom Clarke | 479 c317 (Link to this contribution) As someone who spent time recently in Glasgow, East, and not for the first time, may I put it to the...
Stephen Ladyman | 479 c316 (Link to this contribution) Can the hon. Gentleman honestly tell the House that he did not think of the by-election when he tabl...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c316 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry to have to disappoint the hon. Gentleman, but Glasgow, East is not top of the Conservativ...
Pete Wishart | 479 c318 (Link to this contribution) In the past few months, the Conservatives have accused the Labour Government of nicking some of thei...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c318 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the hon. Gentleman's contribution, and I am happy to acknowledge the work that the Scottis...
Lembit Opik | 479 c317 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman aware that in my constituency average salaries have gone down 4 per cent. in t...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c317-8 (Link to this contribution) I recognise the hon. Gentleman's point. The situation is worse in some places than others, but famil...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c316 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House notes that oil prices are now almost $150 per barrel; further notes t...
Alan Reid | 479 c356-7 (Link to this contribution) As we have heard in this debate, the high price of fuel is having a severe effect on the economy thr...
Nigel Griffiths | 479 c346-7 (Link to this contribution) One of the great pleasures of being Deputy Leader of the House of Commons was the enjoyment that I g...
Yvette Cooper | 479 c326 (Link to this contribution) I have to say that that is complete nonsense. Fuel duty is often set to increase in the autumn, but ...
Sammy Wilson | 479 c328 (Link to this contribution) All the issues that the Minister mentioned may well be matters that should be considered in the Hous...
Stewart Hosie | 479 c327 (Link to this contribution) I come back to the issue of cost, as it is rather important. Will the Minister not confirm that the ...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c317 (Link to this contribution) I do not know which doorsteps the right hon. Gentleman has been on in Glasgow, East, but that is not...
Vincent Cable | 479 c333 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention and I am happy to take one from another remote rural ar...
Vincent Cable | 479 c341 (Link to this contribution) To be fair, I had a long discussion with the SNP, and its argument—I do not know whether the Conserv...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c347 (Link to this contribution) I do not quite know what the hon. Gentleman is rambling on about now, but let us get back to his cri...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c336 (Link to this contribution) On a point of information, the Prime Minister's spokesman said on the record a couple of weeks ago—I...
Justine Greening | 479 c326 (Link to this contribution) Will the Chief Secretary clarify for the House the impact of today's announcement on the forecast fo...
Lord Hammond of Runnymede | 479 c319 (Link to this contribution) We work hard on our policy announcements. We base them on sound research, which I shall be quoting i...
Subjects
Excise duties Fuels Economic situation Inflation Oil Prices Taxation
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
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