MP slams Launceston Tax Office closure plan
The Government came clean today [Wednesday] about proposals to close Launceston’s tax office.
North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson, has accused the Government of ‘deceit and dissembling’ over the plan, which the Public and Commercial Services Union first anticipated over a year ago.
Mr Rogerson has repeatedly raised the issue in Westminster and locally, while Treasury Ministers have denied that the tax office was at risk.
Commenting, Mr Rogerson said:
“I have said all along that plans to close our tax office represent a false economy.
“The highly skilled staff in Launceston do an excellent job not just for Cornwall but for the whole of the United Kingdom.
“Yet Treasury Ministers have had the bare-faced cheek to deny from the outset that these closures were on the cards. Indeed the Paymaster General actually tried to persuade me that I should reassure people in North Cornwall about her plans!
“The Government has a lot of work to do to prove that it is not hiding behind a cloak of ‘consultation’ in what is actually a foregone conclusion. Just as with local post offices, Ministers are again spinning closures as merely ‘change’.
“If the tax office does close, Launceston risks losing vital footfall for its local businesses, the Exchequer will lose out because more tax evasion cases will go undetected, and 60 staff will lose their jobs.
“That would be a devastating triple whammy, and one the Government has not one scintilla of evidence to justify.
“We will respond constructively to the HMRC consultation, not least by presenting them with our petition, which has already attracted well over 1,000 signatures.”
Notes:
1. In a special House of Commons debate, secured by Dan Rogerson last year, Dawn Primarolo (then Paymaster General) told MPs:
I hope that the hon. Gentleman [Dan Rogerson] will forgive me for saying so, but is it not one of his responsibilities as the local MP to ensure that people do not fear what has not happened? Should he not reassure them, rather than take up and elevate rumours about something that does not exist?
I should like to point out to the hon. Gentleman and to his hon. Friends the Members for Falmouth and Camborne and for St. Ives that there have been no announcements or decisions to close any office in Cornwall. It seems to me that in serving his constituents well, the hon. Gentleman needs to ensure that he gets that message across very strongly.20th June 2007, col. 499WH
