How tax transparency can help the Tories

George Osborne is as adept as any gamekeeper at setting little traps in every Budget and Autumn Statement for Labour to fall down. He hinted at a few in his Marr interview yesterday and they were largely the sort we’ve come to expect from the Chancellor on welfare and deficit reduction, but there’s also speculation that he could set another trap on tax.

Ben Gummer’s 10-minute rule bill calling for National Insurance to be renamed the ‘Earnings Tax’ received a disproportionate amount of attention for what is normally simply a parliamentary device by which a backbencher can garner a little bit of attention for their hobby horse. But the reason it received so much attention was that it was made quite clear that this proposal had sympathy at the highest levels of government. It could well be that this sympathy translates into action later this week, which would be another awkward trap for Labour as it would mean that any attempts to close the post-election black hole by sneakily raising National Insurance would be trickier when voters are encouraged by a new name to associate this payment with a tax rather than some benign social investment that they personally benefit from.