Cable: Tax cuts 'not right wing'

Vince Cable likened Gordon Brown to a Darlek

Monday, 15, Sep 2008 05:14

Vince Cable, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, has attacked those in his own party who are refusing to back his and leader Nick Clegg's tax cutting proposals, set to be debated later this afternoon.

In a direct reference to members of his own party - including Evan Harris, science spokesman - he said: "I keep reading in the press that some of our activists don’t like the language of tax cutting; they think it is “right wing”.

"But I don’t see what is “right wing” about wanting to cut the taxes of millions of people who earn less or barely more than the equivalent of the minimum wage".

He also launched a stinging attack on the Conservative party likening them to salesmen who were marketing a new brand of "snake oil".

He said the tax system must be changed so that any tax cuts should mostly be paid for by those who "currently don’t pay their fair share".

He added the Liberal Democrats had a duty to confront the issue of taxation head on and become a tax cutting party.

"How can it be right that the rate of tax on capital gains on second homes is less than half what it was under Nigel Lawson and Mrs Thatcher or half that on earned income?", he said.

"How can it be right that people with million pound pension pots don’t just have more tax relief but a higher rate of tax relief on their contributions?

"How can it be right that failed executives paid massive sums in golden goodbyes can claim the first £30,000 tax free?

"This must stop. We must declare war on the anti-social practices of rich individuals and companies who avoid tax. We should target tax havens in our dependent territories."

Mr Cable said the tax cuts would be paid for by making savings within government departments, calling the public sector "bloated, over centralised, incompetent and unaccountable."

He said the Lib Dems would also scrap a number of government policy proposals, specifically the Child Trust Fund and the means-tested tax credits. ID cards would also be scrapped alongside a number of defence contracts and nuclear energy agreements.

He also attacked public sector managers suggesting the government was not getting value for money from senior staff.

"The coward’s way is to sack or squeeze the pay of low paid public sector

workers. The correct way is to start at the top: require every non-front line public sector employee on £100,000 or more to reapply for their jobs," he said.

"And politicians cannot lead a crusade against self-servicing public sector extravagance unless they lead from the front; so MPs and ministers must accept deep cuts in numbers and fringe benefits like pensions."

Declaring that "no other political party has yet found the language or the policies" to cope with the current economic climate the shadow Treasury spokesman said the Liberal Democrats could offer "a clear, sound, sensible, and fair path through this economic crisis".

He also warned party delegates that the Lib Dems faced as large a threat from the Conservative party as Labour did and that they must "offer a more deeply rooted, more principled, alternative, a clearer analysis of why Britain faces a growing crisis; and a more honest statement of what the government can and cannot do".