On the doorstep for the local elections the common refrain is: it’s time for a change

Spend just a few minutes on the campaign trail for next week’s local elections and it suddenly becomes clear why Labour MPs got into such a mutinous mood. When they happily voted through Gordon Brown’s abolition of the 10p starting rate of income tax last year, it was argued that having 5.3 million pay a little more was worth it in order to be able to say that the basic rate of income tax had fallen. No one foresaw what is now clear: just how badly this ruse would go down with the public.

The first half-hour I spend with Tory activists in Salford gives a taste of the anger. ‘I’m a pensioner, for God’s sake, why does he take more of what little I have?’ asks one householder. ‘I’ve had enough of Mr Brown’s financial tricks,’ says a lady outside a florist. ‘He says this won’t affect anyone but that’s untrue, this will hit one in five families,’ says the manager of the Spar shop.