Some commentators decided long ago that Gordon Brown was a spent force. But there was a flash of the old brilliance during PMQs just now as the prime minister forced David Cameron into a corner over Tory plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1m.
Throwing off his usual awkwardness, Brown seemed much more self-confident than usual. “With him (Cameron) and Mr (Zac) Goldsmith, the inheritance tax policy seems to have been dreamed up on the playing fields of Eton,” he crowed. The Tory leader had the voice of a modern public relations man but a “1930′s” mindset, he claimed.
(There is much speculation that Alastair Campbell could be behind these sharper barbs).
Cameron was rightly able to point out that Labour was itself lifting the IHT threshold, albeit only from £325,000 to £350,000. But this was lost amid the wider point about the Tories helping their rich friends.
Labour strategists are pushing the issue hard (it has come up again and again at PMQs) because they believe the public agrees with them. Private polling has suggested that 90 per cent of voters dislike the Tory policy on IHT.
A survey in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday showed that the Tories were on track to crush Labour in dozens of marginal seats. But Labour has drawn comfort from this one throwaway line in the opinion poll:
Some 61 per cent of marginal voters say the Tory plan to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1million shows they “mainly want to help the rich, not ordinary people”.
With this in mind, it is no wonder that Alistair Darling is considering freezing the rise in the IHT threshold, as the Observer reported on Sunday.
John Whiting, one of Britain’s foremost tax gurus, told me that a freeze would be easy to justify. After all, the pressure for a rise was because the price of housing (which forms most people’s main asset) had risen so much in the last decade. Now, however, Darling can correctly say that house prices have since fallen back somewhat. Certainly enough to justify reversing the proposed threshold rise for next year.
Back to PMQs.
There has been an argument this week about whether the UK is the only G20 country to still be in recession. Check out Will Straw and Guido to get an idea of the debate.
During PMQs, Gordon Brown claimed: “Spain is in the G20 now and is in recession”.
But is Spain in the G20? Depends on your definition of membership. Spain attends the G20 but it is not one of the 20. Still confused?
FURTHER UPDATE
Alex reminds me: We’ve been here before………should it be called the G22?
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey
