Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls has let slip that Labour will put up income tax for people on middle incomes – including teachers, nurses, and police officers.
In a TV interview this week, Ed Balls admitted he would drag more basic rate taxpayers into the 40p tax rate as part of Labour’s £3,028 tax hike on working families. This tax rise would mean teachers, nurses, and police officers paying income tax at 40 per cent, rather than the 20 per cent they pay now.
The Conservatives announced that the threshold for the higher rate of tax would rise from £41,700 to £50,000 in the next parliament, but when pressed on his plans, Ed Balls suggested this would not happen under Labour:
Interviewer: I just want to clarify this because it’s an important point. You are leaving the door open tonight to changing the tax thresholds that mean people in that 40 per cent bracket could be paying more tax under you. You’re leaving that door open?
Ed Balls: What I would like to do is find ways in which I could have fewer people in the 40 per cent tax bracket. Of course I would. But I have to be honest with people. The deficit is going to be £90 billion. I have got to find a way to get the deficit down in a careful, and staged and balanced way. (ITV News West Country, 31 March 2015).
Greg Hands, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Chelsea and Fulham commented: “Ed Balls has let slip that he will raise income tax as part of Labour’s £3,028 tax hike on working families. This is all part of Labour’s plans to hike taxes with every working household facing a £3,028 tax rise if Ed Miliband becomes Prime Minister.
“Labour have already voted in Parliament to commit to £30 billion worth of deficit reduction. Ed Miliband has said in the past that, to plug the deficit, he would find 50 per cent of that money from tax rises.
By contrast, the Conservative plan is to increase to £50,000 the threshold at which people pay the higher rate of tax.
So there is a clear choice at this election: You can choose economic security and lower taxes with David Cameron and our long-term economic plan an economy that grows, that creates jobs, that generates the money to ensure a properly funded and improving NHS. Or you can choose the economic chaos of Ed Miliband’s Britain — over £3,000 in higher taxes for every working family to pay for more welfare and out of control spending. Debt will rise and jobs will be lost as a result.
In addition, the Prime Minister and Chancellor have ruled out raising income tax, national insurance and VAT in the next Parliament. The Conservatives are giving a very clear commitment to working people, that we are there to help them.