§ Mr. SpeakerWe come to the five Ways and Means Motions.
§ Mr. Nicholas Ridley (Cirencester and Tewkesbury)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I refer to the third and fourth motions under which, as I understand it, the House will empower the Government to pay out money to fulfil the obligations in the new clause to the Finance Bill which deals with subsidies to sugar refineries.
The purpose of the Finance Bill is to take in money and not to pay it out. If we allow the practice to pass whereby expenditure can be incurred on the Finance Bill we are indeed breaking with tradition in a considerable way. I submit that it is not in accordance with the rules of the House that a Finance Bill should be used for paying out subsidies to sugar refiners or anybody else.
Constitutionally it would be more proper for the Government to bring in a Bill dealing with sugar subsidies which could then go through its normal stages in the proper way. We should be quite wrong to agree to this change of procedure. After all, this is the Report stage of the Finance Bill. There will be no opportunity to consider the new clause in Committee. In fact, the new clause is a piece of legislation which will empower a major principle to be started—that is a new subsidy for sugar which is not so far part of our arrangements.
I therefore respectfully submit to you, Mr. Speaker, that these two motions should not be on the Order Paper and, indeed, that they are possibly out of order. I should be very grateful for your guidance.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member's point of order relates to the third and fourth motions. We must first deal with the first two motions.