Finance Bill Report Stage: New Clause 8

What happened

On 3 March 2025, the House of Commons voted on New Clause 8 during the Report Stage of the Finance Bill. New Clause 8 would have required the government to review the impact of alcohol duty increases on key sectors, including the Scotch whisky industry. The motion was defeated by 332 votes to 176. The division was one of several opposition amendments considered on the same day, covering topics ranging from the energy profits levy to VAT on private school fees and the impact of the Budget on pensioners and small businesses.

Why it matters

The Finance Bill gives legal force to the tax and spending measures announced in the October 2024 Budget. New Clause 8 sought to compel the Chancellor to publish an assessment of how alcohol duty changes would affect industries such as Scotch whisky, which the debate noted accounts for 22 percent of the United Kingdom's food and drink exports and supports tens of thousands of jobs. By defeating the amendment, the government maintained its Budget measures on alcohol duty without any statutory obligation to assess their sectoral impact. More broadly, the Report Stage debate covered concerns about the national insurance contributions rise, the increase in the energy profits levy on North sea oil and gas, the extension of VAT to independent school fees, and the fiscal pressure on pensioners, with opposition members arguing these measures collectively reduce growth, investment and household incomes.

The politics

The vote followed strict party lines. All 326 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted did so against the amendment, providing the government's majority. The Conservatives (93 ayes), Liberal Democrats (60 ayes), Scottish National Party (7 ayes), Reform UK (5 ayes), Plaid Cymru (4 ayes) and the Democratic Unionist Party (3 ayes) all voted in favour, forming a broad but ultimately insufficient cross-party opposition bloc. The Green Party (4 votes) sided with the government. The result reflects the government's comfortable working majority at this stage of the Parliament and sits within a wider pattern of opposition attempts to amend the Finance Bill being defeated, consistent with other related divisions in early 2025.