Conservatives have dubbed Gordon Brown's Budget "a tax con not a tax cut" after the Chancellor signalled a reduction in the basic rate of income tax just weeks before he seeks to take over from Tony Blair.

Delivering his 11th Budget package in the Commons, Mr Brown surprised MPs when he announced that next year the basic rate of income tax will be slashed from 22p in the £ to 20p.

But at the same time he moved to pay for the concession by declaring that the lower 10p rate of tax on incomes will be scrapped, while national insurance contributions for professional people will be increased.

Conservatives seized on the changes to describe the income tax changes as Mr Brown's "stealthiest tax yet", and went on to warn that despite the Chancellor's window dressing, taxes on business are likely to rise by £1 billion in 2008-2009, plus a further £1.8 billion increase in the following financial year.
Responding to the Budget statement, Conservative Leader David Cameron stressed that after the 101 stealth taxes introduced during Mr Brown's ten year tenure at the Treasury, it was no wonder people were now asking "where has all our money gone?"

With the Chancellor mentioning the NHS just once in his 48 minute Budget statement - to re-announce what he first said three years ago - Mr Cameron said the hole at the heart of the Budget was the Government's failure to fix the National Health Service.

Despite proclaiming that education was his priority, 40 per cent of primary school leavers cannot read properly; despite hailing the benefits of a competitive economy, the Chancellor has given Britain its biggest tax burden in history; and despite his apparent commitment to child poverty, the number of people living in severe poverty is now up by 400,000, while Unicef says Britain is the worst place in the developed world to bring up children.

And under Mr Brown's ten years in charge of the economy, the savings ratio had halved, business investment as a share of GDP was under 10 per cent and going backwards, Britain's trade deficit was widening, and research and development spending was falling.

By 2011 state borrowing would be running at £153 billion, some £8 billion more than the amount Mr Brown said it would be only three months ago. "He has built up a pile of debt - and we are entitled to ask where has all the money gone," Mr Cameron said.

 

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Comments from local Prospective Parliamentary Candidates Cllr Justin Tomlinson and Rob Buckland:

 

 

Cllr Justin Tomlinson states,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Buckland states,