The petition in the form of an Early Day Motion (number 501) has been brought forward by Shadow Paymaster General, Mark Prisk MP, himself a former freelancer. He is asking MPs of all Parties to support the Motion by adding their signature.
The EDM says:
"This House notes the Government's plans to reverse its tax treatment of owner managed businesses; is deeply concerned that this could result in severe financial hardship for thousands of family businesses and thus damage enterprise; asks the Chancellor to explain why his tax incentives went wrong; and urges him to meet with and consult small business representatives prior to the Budget."
Shout99 network
Dozens of members of the Shout99 network have contacted their MPs, many with positive results and in some cases their MPs have offered to write directly to the Chancellor as further support.
You can not assume that your MP will be aware of this from other sources. It takes a few seconds to follow the link in the article below to send a fax to ask your MP to represent the views of small business in their community and add their name.
Action Call: Your chance to push for Rethink on IR591
Who has signed?
So far 48 MPs have added their names to support the EDM. Forty-eight is not a 'bad' number in terms of EDM signatures but that means there are many hundreds who have not 'yet' signed. There are 450 MPs who are members of the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group.
Conservative Party - (35)
Amess/David
Bellingham/Henry
Blunt/Crispin
Boswell/Tim
Brazier/Julian
Duncan/Peter
Fabricant/Michael
Flight/Howard
Flook/Adrian
Gillan/Cheryl
Heald/Oliver
Letwin/Oliver
Mates/Michael
McIntosh/Anne
Moss/Malcolm
Murrison/Andrew
O'Brien/Stephen
Page/Richard
Prisk/Mark
Roe/Marion
Ruffley/David
Sayeed/Jonathan
Selous/Andrew
Spicer/Michael
Spink/Bob
Swayne/Desmond
Syms/Robert
Walter/Robert
Watkinson/Angela
Whittingdale/John
Wiggin/Bill
Wilkinson/John
Wilshire/David
Winterton/Ann
Winterton/Nicholas
Democratic Unionist Party - (2)
Campbell/Gregory
Robinson/Iris
Labour Party - (5)
Dobbin/Jim
Edwards/Huw
Hamilton/Fabian
Pollard/Kerry
Vis/Rudi
Liberal Democrats - (3)
Breed/Colin
Hancock/Mike
Jones/Nigel
Ulster Unionist Party (3)
Beggs/Roy
Burnside/David
Smyth/Martin
What can you do?
All small businesses can play a part in making this a successful motion by encouraging as many MPs as possible to sign. The more signatures, the greater the pressure on the Chancellor to take notice.
However, time is short on this as the Budget is scheduled for March 17, 2004. For more information and how you can make a difference by contacting your MP click on:
Action Call: Your chance to push for Rethink on IR591
News on IR591
Shout99 has a free news and information resource about IR591 which is accessible to anyone by clicking on:
http://www.shout99.com/ir591
If you know other freelancers or small businesses who would be interested in encouraging their MPs to represent their concerns about IR591, you can forward this article to them by using the 'Email A Friend' box below.
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Susie Hughes © Shout99.com 2004
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