Ed Miliband has just started his economy speech in Bedford, so as he gets underway, here’s a quick thought on his plan to reintroduce the 10p tax band. Doing this steals a march on a brewing Conservative campaign. Robert Halfon has been pushing over the past couple of months for the restoration of the 10p tax band to help those on low incomes. He’s badged it the ‘Great Gordon Brown Repeal Bill’, and David Cameron set some pulses racing yesterday at PMQs when he told Yvonne Fovargue that ‘we will not forget the abolition of the 10p tax rate that clobbered every hard-working person in the country’.
But on yesterday’s Newsnight Jon Cruddas also dropped a hint that Labour could bring back the rate, and Miliband will shortly confirm this in his speech. It’s not just Tory MPs who won’t forget that move by Gordon Brown: Labour MPs were also in uproar over its abolition.
Now, there are plenty on the right who don’t think restoring this rate is a good idea: it adds even more complexity to the tax system.
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