Cameron talks tax

David Cameron has an interview with tomorrow’s FT where he comes up with lots of reasons why there will be no tax cuts. Here’s the gist.

1. The tax burden is a not a useful yardstick to judge a government by. As he says: “Using the tax burden is never a good idea because you can reduce or increase the tax burden depending on what you do with government borrowing. It is not a good measure of our success.”

2. The “success” of a Conservative government should be judged not on
tax cuts but on whether it delivered economic stability.

3. Public finances are in a “bad state” although that does “not necessarily” mean tax cuts would be impossible in the first term of a Conservative government. (ie, an attempt to roll back on Hammond’s suggestion there will be no tax cuts until 2015).

4. Asked whether he expected the prime minister to fight the election on a platform of “competence”, he replied: “Bring it on.”