The New Statesman’s Martin Bright writes a more positive account of the Pre-Budget Report than you’ll find in most other places. But he does highlight one potential problem with the package:
“There is at least one area where Darling remains vulnerable, however, and that is over the policy to abolish the 10p tax rate, which he inherited when his predecessor left for No 10. In the PBR, Darling announced an increase of personal tax allowances by £130 a year to soften the impact on those who lost out. But the real question for the Labour high command should be whether this will be enough. If backbenchers feel renewed pressure from their constituents on this issue, the possibility of a rebellion over the Budget in the spring will re-emerge.”
With Frank Field once again murmuring about the issue, the potential is certainly there for another 10p tax rebellion. If it does come, it will come almost two years after Brown’s final Budget as Chancellor; in which he abolished the 10p rate in order to fund a 2p cut in the basic rate. One of the grand ironies of all this is that, in attempting to smooth his ascent to the premiership by wooing C2 voters, Brown may well have created years of trouble for him and his government. What odds, I wonder, that Darling will pay the price for his boss’s self-serving agenda?
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