The Liberal Democrats are keen to use today to show that Coalition works, but Lord Oakeshott is in a less charitable mood. I’ve just had a chat with him about George Osborne’s explicit rejection of the mansion tax in his statement today as ‘intrusive’. The former Lib Dem Treasury spokesman in the House of Lords says:
‘I’m not withdrawing anything I have said about the Tories and the mansion tax. Intrusive is exactly what taxes on high-end tax dodgers have to be. George Osborne has performed a screeching handbrake turn on Tory donors’ orders.’
Nick Clegg’s aides have been trying to labour the proalition point in their briefings , though. A source close to the Lib Dem leader said this afternoon that this was ‘another example of the two parties working together, taking difficult decisions to fix the economy’.
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