COMMENTS BY THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY ON PERSONAL ALLOWANCES

That this House notes the comments by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the Daily Telegraph on 22 March 2014 where he indicated that on the issue of raising personal allowances, “we forced that onto the agenda. No one was really talking about thresholds before we made it a key promise in 2010”; regrets the factual inaccuracy of the statement in that hon. Members representing the Democratic Unionist Party have regularly raised the matter as reported in the Official Report of 1 December 2004, column 690 where the hon. Member for East Londonderry is quoted as saying “other hon. Members and I have lobbied for a significant increase in personal allowances. If, for example, personal allowances and the threshold at which individuals begin to pay national insurance were raised to £10,000 per annum”; and calls on the Chief Secretary to correct his inaccurate statement at the earliest opportunity.