Budget makes poor pay more - Shame on Gordon Brown

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 21st Mar 2007

Commenting on Gordon Brown's budget, Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford west and Abingdon, said:

"The doubling of the starting rate of income tax rate and other changes mean that anyone earning less than around £15,000 will pay more in income tax.

"The 2p cut in the basic rate is a tax cut only for the wealthy, but dressed up as a tax cut for the poor.

"Those on low incomes will now experience even higher rates of taxation and this will do nothing to increase incentives to work."

"Liberal Democrats have called for tax cuts for low and middle earners funded by high taxes on the very wealthy and on polluters."

"The sad fact is that in Britain the wealth gap between rich and poor is higher than it was under Margaret Thatcher. The lowest earning fifth of UK households still pay a greater proportion of their income in tax than the highest earning fifth.

"By introducing loopholes in the capital gains tax regime the Chancellor has - just like the Tories did - allowed the wealthiest individuals to minimise their tax bills at the expense of the low paid.

"This budget was an opportunity to rebalance the tax system in favour of the less wealthy, but the Chancellor refused to take it."

On the issue of taxing pollution which the Lib Dems have demanded, Dr Harris said:

"His proposals on Vehicle Excise Duty fall far short of what is required. As his last budget this should have been a real green budget, with a vision and a commitment to taking the steps needed to tackle climate change.

He could have cut the tax burden on the low and middle income families that need it most from proceeds of green taxation but he has failed to do it.

"The government has wasted large sums of public money on unnecessary and unpopular measures. Now it is planning to waste more. Three examples stand out."

"First, the war in Iraq has cost over £5 billion so far - quite apart from the human cost.

"Second, identity cards will cost at least £6 billion - and perhaps as much as £18 billion.

"Third, we are already committed to £74 billion for the decommissioning of the existing generation of nuclear power stations. Building a new series of nuclear power stations will simply add to that bill.

"The Government should not be wasting tax payers' money in this way."