Cameron vows to 'stand up for poor'

Sunday, 27 April 2008 12:00 AM

Conservative leader David Cameron has told the BBC he wants to "stand up" for the low-paid who he claims have been failed by the government.

Gordon Brown scrapped the 10p tax rate this week despite fierce opposition from some Labour MPs.

In a series of emergency tax measures, the prime minister announced that pensioners under 65 who stand to lose out will get compensation through their winter fuel payment.

Childless individuals who earn between £12,000 and £18,000 will be assessed to work out how much they have lost and the difference addressed through existing tax credits.

Mr Cameron said he would never sanction a Budget that "singled out the poor".

"Those people have been let down by Labour and those are the people I want to stand up for," Mr Cameron told BBC1's Andrew Marr show.

"People on low pay, families who struggle often to make ends meet, who have seen the cost of living rising and have seen their tax bill go up under Labour, those people who thought 'The Labour Party is for me'. I think they feel desperately let down.

"What I want to say to people like that is we are there for you.

"I would not sanction a Budget as a prime minister that singled out the poor for a tax increase at a time when everyone else was either left alone or getting a bit of help."

An ICM survey in today's News of the World newspaper reveals a nine per cent swing from Labour to the Tories, giving Mr Cameron a 64-seat majority.

Tags:
• economy
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• economy and finance
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• income tax
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• taxation