MY ROLE AS AN MP has seen another first in my public duties – serving on a Public Bill Committee and surviving to tell the tale!
Public Bill Committees are not known to many people outside of the political sphere, but they are an incredibly important cog in the UK’s legislative machinery.
For many people, politics may not seem to stretch beyond the weekly shouting match at Prime Ministers’ Questions. However, Parliament is ultimately a legislative body. The Government of the day introduces pieces of legislation (Bills) to be debated and scrutinised by MPs, before becoming law.
A Bill usually starts its life in the House of Commons being debated in the main chamber and scrutinised by a Public Bill Committee. It then passes to the House of Lords for further debate and examination, before any amendments are debated in the House of Commons. Only then can a Bill receive royal assent and become law.
I have spent the past couple of weeks diligently scrutinising the Finance Bill as a member of the Finance Bill Committee.
The Finance Bill usually follows a Budget announcement and is a vital piece of legislation. The Bill stretches into all aspects of everyday life, from the price you pay for fuel to the cost of a pint in your local pub.
However, many people will be most affected by the thresholds of income tax.
In the March 2021 Budget, and the subsequent Finance Act, the Chancellor at the time – Rishi Sunak – froze the basic rate limit and personal allowance for income tax for four years. This was extended by a further two years in last Autumn’s Budget.
It is estimated 8 million people – more than the entire population of the Northwest – will be dragged into paying a higher rate of tax as a result of the frozen tax thresholds. This is called ‘fiscal drag’.
The Government’s proposal is the biggest stealth tax since the doubling of VAT in the early 1990s. One in five taxpayers will be paying the higher rater, 40% or above, at a time when household bills and rising costs are pushing people’s finances to the brink.
The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates the freeze will take its real value in 2027-28 back down to the level in 2013-14. The Government’s policy to push people into further financial hardship begs the question: are we better off today than we were in the past?