Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Chris Leslie confirms: Ed Miliband is planning more tax rises

There’s something Ed Miliband isn’t telling us. He’d spend more, he says, and tackle the deficit. But how? Almost every tax rise he has announced is intended to raise cash for still more spending – so how would he cope with the fact that the government still needs to borrow 12p for every £1 that it spends? The obvious answer is: tax rises. But Labour has taken great care to avoid being drawn onto that topic. Or had taken great care, until Chris Leslie’s outing on the TV shows today.

Leslie, deputy to Ed Balls, is one of the better guys in politics, straight-talking and pretty honest. And today, he told it straight: Labour would indeed need to raise taxes. His exchange on Sky News is above, where he says:-

“We believe that we can deal with the deficit through a combination, yes, of some spending cuts and fairer tax changes’

Those tax changes will be the same ones he referred to in January, but are still not spelt out.

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