News from Sheffield Labour

Nick Clegg has made more changes than a Pantomime Dame

Clive Betts MP (Sheffield Attercliffe) today claimed the Liberal Democrat policies on local taxation were in a complete shambles.

Clive Betts said:

“You can tell it’s nearly Christmas. In the space of 6 months, Nick Clegg has made more changes than a Pantomime Dame.”

Nick Clegg MP the Liberal Democrat Leader has announced that his proposed ‘Mansion Tax’ would now only apply to properties valued at more than £2m.

Clive Betts – a member of the House of Commons’ Communities and Local Government Select Committee – said:

“Yesterday’s announcement by Nick Clegg is a classic example of desperate headline-grabbing as a substitute for serious policy.

“In May this year, he and thousands of Liberal Democrat council candidates were promising that they would replace council tax with local income tax.

“On June 15th, I challenged the Liberal Democrat’s local government spokesperson about this policy in the House of Commons. ‘Local income tax is our policy’ she responded.

Yet, within 24 hours on June 16, Nick Clegg announced on Radio 4 admitted that he was ‘…actively considering alternatives to the Liberal Democrat’s existing local income tax policies.’ He hadn’t even discussed this with his own spokesperson.

Then, at the Liberal Democrat Conference in September, he announced a ‘Mansion Tax’ for properties valued at more than £1m. Yet again, he had to apologise to his own local government spokesperson because he hadn’t even discussed this policy with her.

And now Nick Clegg has announced that his policy will only apply to properties over £2m.”

Clive Betts now also reveals that, despite his claims about how much his ‘Mansion Tax’ will raise, the truth is that Nick Clegg is just wildly guessing about the figure.

Clive Betts said:

“Nick Clegg is just making wild guesses about how much his ‘Mansion Tax’ will raise. There simply is no reliable data on how many properties there are in the UK – or England or in any particular area – valued at more than £1m or £2m.

Because I knew he was just plucking figures out of the air at his Party Conference, I wrote to him asking him to justify his claims. I’m not surprised he hasn’t replied.”

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