April 22, 2008
Why didn’t Labour MPs read their own Budget?
It has taken a year for many Labour MPs to notice that the headline cut in income tax from 22p to 2op came at a cost - the abolition of the 10p band.
That seems pretty embarrassing. Bear in mind that the headlines - the day after the 2007 Budget - focussed on this sleight of hand.
No surprise then that one MP, at Monday night’s meeting of Labour backbenchers (the PLP) got his sums confused. It was wrong, argued the person (Tom Levitt apparently) that MPs would each be £1,000 better off while poor workers suffered. The sum was totally erroneous - being his application of the 2p cut to his entire salary. D’oh.
Meanwhile someone tells me that posters were made a few years back, declaring the greatest achievements of the Labour regime: among them the introduction of the 10p band. Apparently John Prescott still has the posters in his office. But is the 10p one still there?
One wag suggests that supplementing the 1 for a 2 would solve the problem.
Rightly MPs are worried that the issue is going to bite them at next week’s local elections. Apparently the Tories have already drawn up material showing how much worse off different types of workers are going to be.
Gordon Brown’s 2007 budget didn’t just hit low income groups, it also hit small business; something that he has been happening since 2006. As a result of the further changes he announced that year he has now made it entirely possible for a small company to be paying 1110% more in tax next year than would have been the case in 2005. Given that snmall businesses provide some 40% of total employment in the private sector and are a vital component of the economy, this deserves far more attention that it is getting at the moment. http://www.figurewizard.com/article.php/Budget_2007_Exposed_Small_company_tax_in_Budget_2007_
Posted by: figurewizard | April 22nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm | Report this comment