This is Ed Miliband making the case for abolishing the 10p tax rate in 2008.
“When you make a big set of changes in the tax system, some people do lose out. That is a matter of regret. Of course it is. But overall these changes make the tax system fairer.” (Source: IFS)
And this is what he has said this morning…
“We would tax houses worth over £2 million. And we would use the money to cut taxes for working people. We would put right a mistake made by Gordon Brown and the last Labour government. We would use the money raised by a mansion tax to reintroduce a lower 10 pence starting rate of tax, with the size of the band depending on the amount raised.
So in 2008 he reckons it made the tax system fairer when the 10p tax rate was abolished. Does that mean he’s proposing to make in more unfair now?
I am all in favour of a 10p tax band, which I reckon ought to apply for all earnings between £10,000 and £20,000 in an ideal world. But I have no idea how much that would cost, but it would undoubtedly be several billion pounds.[Update: Putting it up to £12,500 would cost £6.2 billion]. There are all sorts of ways this could be funded, but Ed Miliband has yet again decided on a soak the rich policy. All well and good, but in parts of London and the South East many people who own a £2 million house are not cash rich at all, and only live in such a house because it has been in their family for decades, and it is only down to the vagaries of property prices which have put them in that bracket.
Finally, I rather liked this tweet from Tom Harris MP, which tries to justify Ed Miliband’s change of heart…
“BREAKING: Ed Miliband honoured collective cabinet responsibility in last govt. We’ll bring you more as this story develops five years ago.”
