FINANCE BILL (Hansard, 15 July 1958)

§ Mr. Wilson

I merely wondered whether I should be going too wide on this rather narrow Motion.

The whole House will understand the reasons why the Opposition took the initiative in proposing that the Report stage of the Finance Bill, which was to take two days, should be telescoped into one. I think that the Chancellor will agree that we were being fairly abstemious in agreeing to two days for the Report stage and that we have been co-operative throughout the Committee stage of the Bill. If we are to got through this business in one day in an adequate manner, I am sure that the House will recognise that we should bring it to a reasonably early conclusion this evening. In view of the importance of the debate proposed for tomorrow, not to mention the preoccupations of the Chancellor with the big issues which are at stake, I am sure that hon. Members do not wish to go on into the large hours of tomorrow morning, or even the small hours.

I can give the Chancellor an assurance that we on this side will co-operate to the utmost in this matter. We withdrew 1025 a number of Amendments during the Committee stage to facilitate this kind of arrangement, and we shall co-operate to the full by taking this debate as rapidly as possible. But I want to put this question to the Chancellor and to the Patronage Secretary. At every stage in the past, where we have co-operated in this way, the House has been kept up for a long time thereafter by Amendments from hon. Members opposite. There can be no objection to that, because hon. Members opposite have as many rights and duties in this matter as we have. But if we are to co-operate, and recognising that perhaps because of our self-denial there are far more Conservative than Labour Amendments on the Notice Paper, I hope that the Chancellor will appeal to his hon. Friends to show the same degree of restraint and self-denial that we are proposing to show to enable this past of the Bill to be dealt with speedily.

The Chancellor has made such appeals in the past and sometimes they have fallen on very stony ground. Since we want to allow the right hon. Gentleman and the rest of the House to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will renew his appeal so that we do not spend too much time on what, in present circumstances, may be regarded as the minutiæ of the Finance Bill.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Derick Heathcoat Amory)

I agree with what the right hon. Member for Huyton (Mr. H. Wilson) has said about the measure of co-operation which we have had during our discussions on the Finance Bill this year from all parts of the House. Looking back, I think that the balance of time taken by hon. Members on both sides has been fair and reasonable. I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for saying that his hon. Friends will co-operate to ensure that we deal with our business today with reasonable dispatch. I am sure that I speak for my right hon. and hon. Friends when I say that we will do so, too. My hon. and learned Friend the Financial Secretary and myself, while remaining lucid in our observations, will try to be as brief as we can.