HC Deb 13 February 1997 vol 290 cc455-6
7. Mr. Cash

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the average percentage of household income directed to tax payments in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) other EU member states, in the most recent year for which figures are available. [14178]

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Mrs. Angela Knight)

A family on average earnings in the United Kingdom are expected to pay just over 35 per cent. of their earnings in tax next year. Although comparative figures are not available for other European Union countries, the overall burden of taxation on the economy in the United Kingdom, at 353/4 per cent. of gross domestic product last year, is one of the lowest levels in Europe and is below that of France, Germany and Italy.

Mr. Cash

Does my hon. Friend accept, first, that those excellent figures would have been even better, had we not spent so much on the disaster of the exchange rate mechanism; and, secondly, that we will never accept a Europe-wide tax system—unlike Labour Members, who are up to their eyes in the ERM the whole time, would take us back into it and would completely undermine the British economy?

Mrs. Knight

My hon. Friend is right to make those points about the strength of the British economy. I can assure him that the tax point to which he refers would be a matter of unanimity and that this country—this Government—will vote against that.