HC Deb 30 July 1981 vol 9 cc1156-7
13. Mr. Marlow

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will alter the system of tax allowance in favour of families with children where one parent only is in work.

Mr. Peter Rees

This is one of the possibilities considered in the Green Paper on the taxation of husband and wife, which was published last year.

Mr. Marlow

As the only reason why we have a higher rate of unemployment than other Western countries is that a far larger proportion of our womenfolk are in the labour market, and as the main reason why we have more violence on our streets and football hooligans is that mum has a tendency, much greater in this country than other countries, to go out to work, would it not be sensible to convert our taxation system in such a way as to encourage at least one parent to stay at home and look after their young children?

Mr. Rees

My hon. Friend will be able to develop that point forcefully when the Government consider the various representations on the Green Paper.

Mr. Michael Morris

Is my hon. and learned Friend aware that the majority of women who go out to work do so out of economic necessity or to repay society for taking some form of professional education?

Mr. Rees

That is one of the factors that must be balanced against the point made so forcefully by my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North (Mr. Marlow). It demonstrates clearly that the solution to our fiscal problems involves a whole range of social and economic factors that cannot be readily or quickly resolved without a full-scale examination of the Green Paper and the representations about it.

Mr. Cryer

Does the Minister agree that the suggestion by the hon. Member for Northampton, North (Mr. Marlow) that rioting is due to mothers going out to work is a slur on dedicated mothers who need to go out to work to help the family? Is not the truth behind the rioting the Government's rotten economic policies that are causing deprivation and unemployment in our inner cities?

Mr. Rees

I do not think that the tendency for mothers to go out to work started with this Administration. The hon. Gentleman is opening a debate on social trends that goes far wider than the Green Paper which is the subject of the original question.

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