Pickles: Poll tax legacy haunts Conservatives

Efforts to reform local taxation under a Conservative government would be hindered by the legacy of the poll tax, shadow local government secretary Eric Pickles has admitted.

Mr Pickles made clear the Tories would have to move slowly on reforming council tax because of the poll tax, which suffered enormous unpopularity and contributed to the demise of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the early 1990s.

"If there is one thing that is written deep in the heart of any Conservative politician looking at this, that is the two horrible words: poll tax," he said on the Today programme.

"That definitely means that anything we do with regards to the council tax, we will have to take it over a number of years. You can't make changes overnight."