Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour conference: anti-promise Ed Balls ‘can make no commitment’ on cuts or tax

Last week’s Lib Dem conference dealt with a promise Nick Clegg wished he had never made. This week’s Labour conference is in part about promises Ed Miliband and Ed Balls won’t make at all, or at least not for a few years. The Shadow Chancellor was cagey when he appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning, saying ‘I can make no commitment now to reverse any of those cuts or the tax rises, because we don’t know what the economy’s going to be like in two months’ time let alone in two years’ time when the election comes’.

Having kicked up a real song and dance about the government’s decision to scrap the 50p top rate of income tax in the Budget, Balls also conceded to the BBC interviewers that he couldn’t commit to reimposing the rate:

‘Right now the government is, as I said, spending £3 billion for a tax cut on millionaires, they’re only putting up taxes on pensioners by less than that so, right now, if you stopped both those things, the Treasury would be better off not worse off. There’s a £3 billion cost to that millionaires’ tax cut. I can’t say in 215, two and a half years from now what we can promise now on tax and spending and that’s all tax rates, so we’ll need to look.

‘We all know what happened to Nick Clegg’s promises before the last election and he’s now had to apologise for breaking them and the lesson you learn is you make promises when you know the full facts and the situation. Two and a half years’ time – is this government keeps on failing on the economy in recession, goodness knows where we’ll be and can I promise then to make decisions on tax and spend? You’ll have to wait for our manifesto.’

Unlock unlimited access, free for a month

then subscribe from as little as £1 a week after that
SUBSCRIBE

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in