When politics gets very petty

The government accepted four amendments from Labour and other opposition parties this evening.

None were particularly earth-shattering or wreck the strategy laid out in the budget: they included a review of the public health effect of gambling and another review of the effectiveness of the Government's new tax avoidance measures.

The government also accepted a proposal from Labour that there should be a report detailing the impact of measures to require disclosure of information about cross-border tax arrangements under different Brexit scenarios, and a review of the effects of the Government's new tax avoidance measures on households with different levels of income, on child poverty, and on a regional basis.

Did the opposition respond positively to this?

No, the shadow chancellor called it "Absolutely staggering" that the government had agreed to what his own party was putting forward and accused the government of falling apart.

If it was that astonishing that the government should agree to these proposals why did Labour put them forward?

Sometimes politics can be very strange and very petty.



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