Have the Tories fallen into Gordon Brown’s 40p tax trap? Since the measure was announcned in the Pre-Budget Report, they’ve skilfully avoided raising it – after all, an attack on the tax hike could be spun by Labour as a case of the Tories and their “rich friends”; whilst support for it could provoke some ire from the Tory benches. But no longer. The Telegraph extrapolates from David Cameron’s comment yesterday that “the richest in our society must bear a fair share of the burden” to reveal that:
“Senior Tory sources believe that the 45p tax rate is now necessary if the party is to fulfil its other pledges to reduce public debt and continue to maintain front-line public services such as health and education.
One source said: ‘We do not like it but, given the current finances, we cannot pledge to avoid it.'”
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