What Conservatives will do

People who work hard and look after themselves and their families deserve value for the taxes they pay. We will give taxpayers value for money and stop Mr Blair’s next round of stealth taxes.

• Our plans mean we can spend on our priorities by cutting back on the rest. We will stand up for Britain’s hard-working families and pensioners.

• We will spend £12 billion less than Labour in 2007-8. £8 billion will be used to reduce borrowing, so we can avoid Labour’s plans for third term tax rises. The remaining £4 billion will be used to cut taxes in our first Budget, including a 50 per cent council tax discount for those 65 and over, up to a maximum of £500 a year.

Why Labour are all talk

Before 1997, Mr Blair claimed he had ‘no plans to increase tax at all’ (Financial Times, 21 September 1995). All talk. He has put up stealth taxes 66 times.
Analysis of the latest Department of Work and Pension data by the Institute for Fiscal Studies yesterday shows that:

• ‘Average (mean) household incomes after tax and benefit payments fell by 0.2 per cent in real terms between 2002-3 and 2003-4, dropping to £408 per week in 2003-4 prices. This was the first decline in any single year since the early 1990s’ (IFS Press Release, 30 March 2005).
• ‘The drop in average take-home income in part reflects measures announced in Budget 2002, Mr Brown’s biggest tax raising budget to date.’
• ‘The better off were hit by rises in income tax, national insurance and council tax.’
• ‘The tax and national insurance rises announced in Budget 2002 and taking effect in April 2003 reduced average incomes by 0.8 per cent in 2003-4. The biggest above-inflation increases in council tax to date under the current government reduced average incomes by a further 0.3 per cent’. Taxes have gone up and what have hard-working families got to show for it?

Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats would raise taxes to fund not only Gordon Brown’s black hole, but also the myriad spending commitments they have made. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies has noted, ‘if the Chancellor after the next election wants to continue to expect to meet the golden rule in the future, then a Labour or Liberal Democrat chancellor would probably have to announce fresh tax increases. A Conservative Chancellor, by contrast, might be able to avoid having to announce any further tax increases’ (IFS, IFS analysis of the Budget 2004, 17 March 2004). Charles Kennedy thinks ‘the middle classes…should pay more for a better society’ (BBC Radio 4, Today, 24 September 2003). Liberal Democrat frontbencher, Andrew George MP, has added, ‘our slogan at the next election will be “trust us, we will put your taxes up’’ ’ (BBC Radio 5, Simon Mayo Show, 19 January 2005).

The British people have a choice at the General Election –

Value for money and lower taxes with the Conservatives

More waste and higher taxes under Labour