Top tax rate ‘means to end’
A 50 pence top rate of tax is a “means to an end” rather than a definite policy in its own right, Charles Kennedy said today.
The Liberal Democrat leader indicated that the policy to collect 50 per cent income tax on people earning more than £100,000 could be reviewed.
In an interview with The Independent this morning, Lib Dem Europe spokesman Nick Clegg called on his party to reassess the policy on the basis that voters were concerned that it was an obstacle to aspiration.
And in a question and answer session at the Lib Dem conference in Blackpool, Mr Kennedy failed to confirm whether the 50p policy would survive the current review of party policy.
He said the “principle was about fairness” and the 50 per cent tax rate was simply a “mechanism – a means to an end”.
Mr Kennedy’s comments echoed those made earlier in the day by the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Chris Huhne, who indicated that such a levy would render Britain “uncompetitive”.
He added that there are “alternative ways of being redistributive”, such as cutting tax rates and cutting tax relief at the same time.
This, Mr Huhne told a fringe meeting, had the “same effect” without the “disincentive of a higher rate”.
Deputy party leader Menzies Campbell told the same meeting that he saw “no reason” why people earning more than £100,000 should not make a greater contribution.
But Susan Kramer MP warned that while fairness and the concept of a redistributive tax system were “absolutely fundamental”, the Lib Dems should not hold on to the idea of a 50p tax rate for the sake of it.
For a list of Opinion Former fringe events click here.
