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Party manifestos lack clarity and detail on tax plans - IFS

All four main political parties are banking on bringing in more cash via tighter tax avoidance measures if elected, but voters haves been left ‘somewhat in the dark’ about their plans to cut spending and increase taxes in order to bring down the deficit, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)

The influential think tank has looked at each party’s election manifesto to assess their respective public finance plans.

It says the Conservatives are planning the largest reduction in borrowing over the next parliament, of 5.2% of national income, to eliminate the deficit by 2018–19, but criticises the party for providing ‘next to no detail’ on how this will be achieved.

Soumaya Keynes, research economist at the IFS, said: ‘They should be forthcoming on the £5bn of largely unspecified clamp down on tax avoidance, the £10 billion of unspecified cuts to social security spending and, according to our calculations, further real cuts to 'unprotected' departments of around £30bn.’

The

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