Close to Defeat

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1021, 11 July 1930, Page 11

Close to Defeat

LABOUR’S ANXIOUS MOMENT

Deserted By Liberals

THREE VOTES TO SPARE IN DIVISION

BY voting with the Conservatives in the House of Commons, the Liberals went perilously close to defeating 1 lie Labour Government on a question of income-tax increases.

Many Liberals were surprised at the narrowness of the margin—three votes —while caustic Labour criticism was directed at Mr. Lloyd George.

United I*. A..-—By Telegraph Copyright LONDON, Thursday. .

There was a suggestion that the division would lead to trouble in the Liberal Party. Its effect in Government quarters was to provoke severe criticism of Mr. Lloyd George and the remark that the conspiracy to kill the Government had failed. COAL BILL PUZZLE The House of Commons today considered the amendment to the Coal Mines Bill made by the House of 1 Lords. After Mr. A. Bevan, Labour member for Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, and ] other miners’ representatives had de- 1 dared against a spread-over of hours ; the Government’s motion of disagree ment with the Lords’ amendment on the subject was carried bv 296 votes 1 to 238. EMPIRE TRADE POLICY LEFT WING AMENDMENT LONDON, Thursday. An amendment to Mr. Stanley Baldwin’s motion of censure on the question of stimulating Britain’s trade markets by safeguarding, has been tabled by members of the left wing of the Labour Party, including Messrs. Wise, Beckett, Oliver, McGovern, Oliver Baldwin and Miss Jenny Lee. The motion says neither free trade nor protection is a remedy for unemployment, and asks the Government: (1) To rescue British agriculture from ruin by establishing import boards for the principal foodstuffs and raw materials, which would enable remunerative prices to be guaranteed to British agriculturists for their produce, in order to avoid the disastrous effects of speculation and dumping. (2) To build up British exports by reciprocal arrangements in connection with hulk contracts. (3) To reorganise on national lines the importing and exporting machinery of the staple trades, to deal with unfair competition.

The Labour Government was only saved from defeat by three votes in the House of Commons yesterday in the committee stage of the Finance Bill. Dr. E. L. Burgin, Liberal member for Bedford, Luton, moved an amendment to permit the exemption from income-tax of money spent on plant and machinery. This amendment was supported by the Conservatives and was only defeated by 27S votes to 275. The Government was saved by four Liberals voting with it. Thirteen other Liberals abstained from voting, while about 25, headed by Mr. Lloyd George, voted with the Conservatives against the Government. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Philip Snowden, said the proposal contained in the amendment meant a subsidy to every trade and i>rofession. Every new counter put in a bank and every new vat in a brewery would escape taxation at the expense of the taxpayer. It would cost £30,000,000 a year without reducing the number of unemployed by a single person. LIBERALS SURPRISED

The greater part of this gift would go to prosperous industries and leave "Lazarus still begging at the gate.” Mr. Lloyd George said he did not desire to defeat the Government. He was of the opinion that the proposed concession would cost only £6,000,000 or £7,000,000, but it wouhl accelerate orders and help rationalisation. Mr. Winston Churchill, formerly Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, said this Liberal pi-oposal was freer from objection than others. When the division was taken the House was seething with excitement. The result of the vote was announced amid great Ministerial cheering, with a universal gasp of relief and cries of “resign” and counter cheers. Some of the Liberals stated after the division that they had not realised that the Government had been in serious danger or they would have acted differently.