As the general election campaign enters its final week Conservative leader David Cameron has reiterated his party’s commitment to a five year ‘triple tax lock’, and has said a future Conservative government would introduce legislation to ensure there would be no increase in the rate of income tax, VAT or national insurance contributions (NICs) over the term of the next parliament
In a speech to be delivered later today in Warwickshire, Cameron will pledge that the new ‘tax lock’ legislation would be introduced within the first 100 days of a Conservative government.
The Conservative manifesto, published earlier this month, stated that the party would not raise income tax, VAT or NICs, but the commitment to introducing legislation to make this a certainty is new.
Cameron will say: ‘When it comes to your tax bill, do you trust the people who have taxed you to the hilt when they were in power and still haven't come clean about the taxes they want to increase next time round?
‘Or do you trust the Conservatives, who have cut income taxes for 26million people and who will cut your taxes again next time.’
Labour’s manifesto stated it will not raise NICs or the basic or higher rates of income tax, but did not make a commitment on possible changes to income tax thresholds or the ceiling for NICs.
Research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) this week analysing the tax and benefit policies of the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats said it found ‘little evidence of any coherent strategy, and numerous proposals that would complicate the tax system.’
Its analysis suggested the Conservatives propose small net cuts to taxes and large cuts to benefits, while Labour proposes a rise in taxes and little change to benefits spending and it describes the Liberal Democrats as being in both respects ‘somewhere in between’.
The report stated: ‘All these parties seem to have a desire to raise tax revenue in vaguely-defined, opaque and apparently painless ways.’
The think tank also accused all the main parties of a ‘lack of willingness to be clear about the details, and an inability to resist the urge for piecemeal changes which would make the overall system less efficient and coherent’.
