Peter Hoskin

Balls tries to force the tax debate

Ok, ok, this will be my final post today on a Labour interview, but it’s worth highlighting the Guardian’s chat with Ed Balls.  Breakfasting CoffeeHousers may not make it past the opening image of the Schools Secretary, “half-naked on a desolate main road in Knowsley,” so here’s the key passage from later in the article:

“[Balls] believes the Tories have made a big error after abandoning plans to match Labour spending commitments as Cameron makes clear he would like to reverse three big tax changes – the 50p top rate, due to be introduced next April; the 0.5% increase in national insurance contributions, due to be introduced in April 2011; and the changes in pensions tax relief.

‘Add those together and that is a £10bn tax gap for the Tories. George Osborne said he wants to get the deficit down faster than us.

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