The Tories mustn't fall into Brown's trap

Fergus Pickering

The Tories do NOT need to say they are minded to oppose the 45p rate. The Tories can justshut up about it. My wife, a good lady of strong Tory instincts, approves a 45p rate, or a 50p rate. No need to pis her off, is there? I am convinced that the thing will not bring in revenue, but I am all for shooting a few rich people now and then. Is that unTory? I can even make a little list. But of courseit should be done hugger-mugger, not in the full blaze of publicity. The idea that people in receipt of grossly inflated salaries are necessarily movers and shakers is poppycock. Or bollocks, for our Sun readers.

jules

osborne must stand up and tell the public that "this is THE most expensive election campaign in the history of the world. none of it is truly to help the country in the long term but merely to help brown get elected - not re-elected obviously. it is an absolute disgrace that he will gamble with our future and our children's futures in order to protect his personal interest.

C Powell

Surely the answer is that this new tax rate will not raise enough money to pay the huge amount of debt we will be saddled with and that therefore one - or both - of two things will happen: either this new rate will have to be introduced at a much lower rate of income and/or the basic rate of income tax will also need to be raised.

Also watch out for what happens to personal allowances and NI: undoubtedly these too will be manipulated to get more tax out of people.

What the Tories should say is that they are concentrating on (1) long-term tax changes not short-term "hokey-cokey" ones; (2) helping the unemployed; and (3) raising personal allowances to help lower earners.

As someone who remembers the 70's, this is beginning to feel like Ground Hog Day....

Prodicus

They can also say that given the size of the Brown-caused problem, it's an irrelevant bit of almost revenue-neutral tinkering. 'Titanic... deckchairs... crowd-pleaser,' etc.

Travis Bickle

The Tories can demonstrate their knowledge of the tax system by completely ignoring this gimmick. Anyone earning over £150K is very unlikely not to have an accountant who can tell them exactly how to avoid paying a penny extra tax, especially given 3 years to put sheltering strategy in place.

Nicholas

The Labour "narrative" is very cunning. "We are going to stimulate the economy to help people but only claw the money back by taxing rich people more". By postponing the new rate of tax until after the election it becomes part of their election campaign immediately.

This is a man who has governed all along in the style of campaigning for an election, with guile and self-serving interest.

As for announcements to parliament. This morning the Labour-trumpeting BBC blithely announced that all police were to be armed with taser stun guns. Where was the parliamentary debate about such a significant change to our police?

In addition to ruining the economy New Labour have changed the whole atmosphere in Britain for the worst. It feels more oppressive, sinister and unfriendly day by day.

TomTom

We should not forget the Basic rate of tax used to be 35% and may well be once again to shore up the economy.

Far better for Conservatives to focus on how little impact huge billions of tax cuts have on individual families and why utility regulation is so weak that energy prices drain family budgets even though VAT is only 5%

Mark

The Tory response should be that this is pure politics and that the amount of money which would be raised would be peanuts compared to the sums involved in the emergency package. It is a red, red herring.

Tim Carpenter LPUK

I would have thought the key attack is that Labour are attempting to bind a future Parliament, in contrast to one of the key aspects of our constitutional safeguards. Spend now, make a minority pay later. Tyranny of the Masses, anyone?

A VAT cut will help the poorest workers the least. "Vin" Cable made the most sense when speaking about raising income tax thresholds for the poor IMHO. Better still to end Income Tax altogether and do what any normal household should do when times are hard: cut spending.

Rhoda Klapp

A 45p rate tomorrow will mean something. The promise of one in the medium-term future means nothing. No govt would give warning of a cut in this way to allow time for the rich to move out. Has this govt realised that announcing things is not the same as doing things, or is this another policy for announcing only?

oldtimer

The test for this tax, like any other, is this. Will it work? The evidence from the time when the top rate was reduced from 60% to 40% is that it raised the amount of income tax raised from the highest earners - they now contribute c20% of all income tax. All the evidence is that the incentive will be for these high earners to relocate elsewhere - like corporations relocating to Ireland now.

If this measure is, in fact announced and the Conservatives choose to talk about it then they should concentrate on this aspect. Will it work?

That, as I understand it, is their objection to the VAT cut. Namely that a price reduction is not a solution to a credit problem.

But then we need to remember that this statement is not about solving the credit problem but about Brown and co`s pre-election positioning. The VAT cut, Brown hopes, will help massage the inflation rate numbers down.

The tax bombshell wrapped in Xmas paper looks a good metaphor to me. The 45% leak is a wheeze to divert attention from bigger issues.

Troy

OK - someone on 400K per year will pay an extra GBP 11,250.

It's not going to break their bank - but equally 11,250 doesn't get you much under the profligacy of Labour's spending regime, once you've handed it over via HMRC.

I think mid-boom the talk was that such a tax might raise 1.2BN annually, so probably under a billion in the current climate, which is not enough to do anything effective. For instance, it will only offset <10% of the proposed VAT cut.

It may keep hardcore Labour voters happy, but I imagine the main effect will be to annoy the targets of the tax - giving them another reason (as if they needed one) to bugger off elsewhere.

Under Labour's boom, there are probably plenty of people payed 400K who shouldn't earn anything like that. However, if someone can justify that kind of salary from their employers in a downturn (when large pay packets are under scrutiny) then you probably want them to stick around in this economy, and not to pack their bags for Dubai.

Talk about partisan politics and scorched earth! Please, Gordon, just go.

Ian C

The other line to take is that there won't be anyone left earning more than £150,000 in this country for them to tax by the time the Labour Government is finished with laying waste the economy.

TrevorsDen

PS - Tom Tom is quite right. Higher rate owners today, basic rate owners tomorrow.

Cropstar

The tories should say how it will have a limited impact but the jury is out whether it will increase tax, and say they will support it for 2 years (until the next election) and then review it.

Then it can be dropped post the next election whilst taking out the venom from Labour stooges talking about Tories helping their rich friends now

HJ

Ian C - There will be people left earning £150k+. As the Taxpayers Alliance points out, there are plenty of them in the public sector.

In fact, the TA figures don't include local authority officials or GPs (who are nominally not employed by the NHS), but these people are all funded entirely by the public purse.

The Wilted Rose

If voters rightly realise that this 45p rate will eventually "after the recession" apply to people earning a lot less than £100K, say £40K, which many people would like to earn (or may already be earning), then they will not be pleased.

The Conservatives MUST oppose this tax rise.