The respected think tank calls the claim 'unhelpful and of little value'
David Cameron’s claim that working families could face a £3,000 tax rise under a Labour government has been demolished by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) as ‘unhelpful and of little value’.
Cameron made the claim yesterday in a speech outside Downing Street after visiting Buckingham Palace to inform the Queen of the dissolution of parliament. Cameron said that voters could:
“choose an economy that grows, that creates jobs, that generates the money to ensure a properly funded and improving NHS, a government that will cut taxes for 30 million hardworking people and a country that is safe and secure. Or you can choose the economic chaos of Ed Miliband’s Britain – over £3,000 in higher taxes for every working family to pay for more welfare and out-of-control spending. Debt will rise and jobs will be lost as a result.”
However the £3,000 claim was rejected by the IFS, which pointed to a number of flaws in the assumption. In a statement, the IFS said:
“There is little value in bandying around numbers which suggest either party would increases taxes by an average of £3,000 for each working household. We don’t know what they will do after the election. But neither of the two main parties has said anything to suggest that is what they are planning.”
IFS director Paul Johnson also called figure unhelpful, saying ‘you certainly cannot draw up such a precise figure’.
According to the respected think tank, Labour could meet its fiscal targets with £3bn in tax rises from 2018-19 – and not with the £15bn in tax rises from 2017-18 that Tory spin doctors claimed.
The IFS also said the £3,000 figure was a cumulative increase over parliament and not an annual increase, and that the Conservative figure assumed that all of the burden fell on only 17m working households rather than the 26.7m total households in the UK.
Conservative party chairman Grant Shapps initially described the £3,000 figure as ‘absolutely solid’. After yesterday’s intervention from the IFS, however, he changed his tune, calling it ‘guesswork’.
James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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4 Responses to “IFS rubbishes David Cameron tax claim”
littleoddsandpieces
SOME HAD A TAX RISE BACK IN 2010 FROM THE TORIES
The £3,000 tax rise happened when the Tories cut £3,000 tax allowance from those turning 65 in 2013.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
TORIES MORE NATIONAL DEBT NOT LESS
The Tories have spent more in 5 years and risen national debt by the Tories’ massive rise in welfare admin, both state and private,
than Labour did in 13 years of rule.
NO SAVINGS ON WELFARE BILL
JUST TRANSFERED ONTO NHS
All so-called welfare admin cuts have just transferred cost to NHS by the huge rise in malnutrition hospital admissions and GPs reporting more and more Rickets in kids, a hunger sympton that affects bone development.
ANY TAX RISES WILL BE TO MINORITY
WHO CAN AFFORD IT
The tax rises by Labour are to the rich who have had a massive rise in wealth, when they are a minority against the bulk of the population on average wages and below, stagnated for years whilst prices have shot up.
POOR ALREADY 90 PER CENT TAX RATE
The poor have a 90 per cent tax rate,
from the 75 per cent of tax from people to government
from stealth indirect taxes and VAT, even on food.
The poor get hit by tax on unaffordable food price rises and energy bills, that have tax and VAT as a significant part of the price.
POOR ARE 75 PER CENT OF POPULATION
BELOW BASIC TAX ALLOWANCE
Labour will not get the poor vote, and these are tens of millions of people, who now outnumber all other voters in a huge number of Tory and Lib Dem marginals, especially in England.
SEE WHO ARE THE PARTIES OF THE POOR ON THE LEFT
FORM A MULTI PARTY COALITION WITH LABOUR
ONLY WAY TO BRING ABOUT
A MAJORITY ANTI-AUSTERITY UK GOVERNMENT
Please see my personal website:
http://www.anastasia-england.me.uk
Leon Wolfeson
So…the usual then. Sigh.
Norfolk29
Is it not strange that no one thought of calculating the value of the 2.5% increase in VAT we have all paid since George Osborne raised the rate in 2010. Any answers from any official body or are they all asleep to Tory propaganda?
Leon Wolfeson
The problem with that is while you can calculate the direct effect, the indirect effect snowballs through the economy and is very hard to calculate.
You can only really look of it as at part of the whole. Which is in terrible shape, but the Tories are pulling hard with their propaganda…and Labour can’t challenge much of it without admitting their commitments to cuts and austerity in a time of deflation are a bad idea!