Tories attack 'clickety-click Chancellor'
Oliver Letwin today turned bingo caller to nickname Gordon Brown "the clickety-click Chancellor" as Tories claimed he had introduced 66 tax rises in his time in office.
Wednesday's Budget introduced six new changes to the tax system which will bring in extra cash for the Treasury, said the shadow chancellor.
While Mr Brown has kept to Labour manifesto promises not to raise income tax, he has devised dozens of alternative revenue-raising schemes - dubbed "stealth taxes" by the Tories - since arriving at the Treasury in 1997.
"Two days on, a close look at the Budget details reveals that Gordon Brown is the clickety-click Chancellor," said Mr Letwin.
"From the man who has already brought us 60 stealth tax increases, we now have numbers 61 to 66.
"The hard truth is that the Chancellor has increased tax by £5,000 a household in Britain since 1997, and his Budget has put us on course for more tax increases after the next election."
The Budget measures identified by Mr Letwin as new stealth taxes were:
- The removal of incentives for small owner-managed businesses to turn themselves into corporations. The incentives were initially introduced by Mr Brown, but he decided to reverse them because of concerns they were being abused as a method of tax-avoidance.
- An increase in the tax payable on company vans available for private use.:: The extension of legislation on cross-border payments for goods and services between companies within the same group, which will cover transactions within the UK from April 1.
- An increase in tax on trusts from 34% to 40%.
- A rise of 1p a litre above inflation in duty on red diesel, the low-tax fuel used in business and agriculture. This brings the duty up by 2.42p a litre to 6.64p, a 57% hike.
- Increase in duty on liquefied petroleum gases used as road fuel of 1p a litre above the rate of inflation. This is an increase of 2.42p a litre to 7.82p, a 45% increase.
