News from Labour Matters

Conservatives hint at VAT bombshell but won’t come clean before poll

The Conservatives’ favourite tax – VAT – looks set to be jacked up within days of a Tory election win Ken Clarke hinted today, but don’t expect the policy to feature in Cameron’s manifesto.

The threat that Labour would increase the tax on the things you buy was famously used by the Conservatives with a poster campaign claiming it was Labour’s “tax bombshell”, but VAT remains a Tory tax. They introduced it, and almost doubled it after the 1979 election, despite denials that they had any plan to do so before the election.

David Cameron even tried to revive the campaign a couple of years ago, claiming that Labour planned to jack up the tax to 20%, but when Labour CUT the tax back to 15% to help get Britain out of recession the Tories opposed it.

Now we can see why: it’s the Cameron who is secretly planning to make everything cost more, not Labour.

If George Osborne gets the keys to number 11 Downing Street, don’t say we didn’t warn you what he is secretly planning.

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