Johnson admits Labour tax divisions

Sunday, 14 November 2010 12:00 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson has admitted he and Labour's leader Ed Miliband are divided on two key tax issues.

Mr Johnson told BBC1's The Politics Show that he and Mr Miliband are continuing to clash on whether the higher education funding should be solved through a graduate tax and on whether a 50p rate should be introduced on income tax.

The leader of the opposition backs both proposals but Mr Johnson disagrees, leaving the two most important figures in the opposition openly disagreeing with each other in an admission likely to embarrass Labour.

"You have to separate out what's going on in a leadership contest, where people say all kinds of things in the cut and thrust of that campaign - and where we stand now," Mr Johnson argued.

But he added: "We are working through these issues - on the graduate tax and on the 50p tax rate - and we will provide a considered policy option at the right time. We are not setting all our policies out now."

Behind the scenes Mr Miliband is known to be very relaxed about formulating new policies. Mr Johnson has cited Labour's pre-election Budget, delivered in March, when asked about the opposition's alternative to the coalition government's spending plans.

He added: "We have to discuss those differences of opinion like mature people, which is really a mindset I think Ed has brought into the party and I think that is commendable."

But Michael Fallon, the Conservative party's deputy chairman, said Mr Johnson had made an "extraordinary admission".

"Seven weeks after he was chosen, Ed Miliband still can't make up his mind; there's still no Plan A," he commented.

Tags:
• economic policy
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• economy
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• economy and finance
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• labour
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• party politics