News from The Labour Party

Research shows Tory tax plans would benefit the few not the many

Figures released yesterday to Parliament reveal that the Conservatives plan billions of pounds worth of tax cuts for the wealthiest few in Britain.

On the same day that David Cameron spoke on inequality at the launch of a Tory think tank, newly released figures showed Tory plans for a marriage tax allowance would give the highest earners 13 times as much as people on lower incomes – and many couples would get nothing at all.

This is in addition to their ‘queue’ of tax plans which give billions to the two per cent best off, while leaving the rest of the public to pay the cost through cuts to schools, police and transport.

Alistair Darling MP, Labour’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, confronted George Osborne in the House of Commons yesterday with the many Tory tax plans that benefit the few. He said:

“We know with inheritance tax that all the benefit goes to about two per cent of the largest estates. 98 per cent of the public won’t benefit from it.

“If you look at the married couples allowance proposals they’ve got, we find that the highest earners receive 13 times as much of the benefit as someone at the other end of the income scale.

“If we look at the 50p increase it’s patently obvious that benefits people at the top end. In relation to reversing the pension tax relief, again it’s the top end that benefits.

“This amounts to about £10 billion of promises, there are others as well, but it’s interesting who gains.

“What he’s proposing will benefit people at the top end of the income scale. Nothing has changed with the Conservative Party.

“His policies aren’t just the wrong thing to do for the economy – but it can’t be right at a time like this when he’s actually going out of his way to give what tax cuts he’s proposing to people at the top end of the income scale.”

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