David Cameron was in feisty form on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. Cameron, who has finally woken up to the need to be more political, defended his record — including his decision to cut the top rate of tax — with vigour.
Cameron stressed how the richest 10 per cent are paying 10 times more towards the cost of deficit reduction than the bottom 10 per cent. But he argued, correctly, that the 50p tax rate was dangerously uncompetitive. He said that he was determined ‘to always be fair and seen to be fair’ which suggests to me that some new tax on the rich, something the Liberal Democrats could call a wealth tax, is on the way. Although he ruled out a mansion tax and the Chancellor has said there’ll be no new council tax bands, there are other options.
The attraction of a new tax on the rich is that it would make it far easier to persuade Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats to agree to the £10.5 billion of welfare cuts that George Osborne believes are necessary to limit the extent of cuts elsewhere. Cutting welfare and introducing an extra levy on the wealth would also hit the so-called ‘fairness’ sweet spot that contemporary politicians are always looking for.
The only moment when Cameron seemed thoroughly discomfited was when Marr pressed him on how the national debt was rising. Cameron kept saying that the deficit has been cut by a quarter, which isn’t right — it’s the structural deficit that is down – while struggling to answer the debt question.
On Europe, Cameron seemed to use the ‘single currency’ as short hand for a country called Europe. He is a clearly gearing up for a fight on the budget, saying that post-veto they ‘know I’m capable of saying no’. But he was far hazier on the referendum question. He reiterated that he wanted renegotiation but suggested that either a general election or a referendum could serve as ‘the new consent for this new settlement’.
Cameron handled the inevitable Boris question quite well—declaring that he had urged him not to quit politics at the end of his second mayoral term. Although I don’t think anyone thinks that Boris might return Cincinnatus-like to his plough in 2016.
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