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Stephen Tall

The VAT rise: a refresher course for Labour

By Stephen Tall | Tue 4th January 2011 - 1:58 pm

Today’s increase in VAT from 17.5% to 20% — announced in the Coalition’s emergency budget last year — has triggered a fresh burst of opportunism criticism from Labour. The “wrong tax at the wrong time” claims their leader Ed Miliband.

How Labour’s last Chancellor backed a VAT rise

I suspect there’s a Labour MP we won’t be hearing from today, though: Alistair Darling*, Chancellor until the party’s defeat in May. As Mark Pack noted here last July, Mr Darling was a strong advocate of increasing the rate of VAT in order to tackle the UK’s massive deficit, with The …

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    I think Ed should be worried if Caron is saying this. She is not quick to temper on such matters. As others have said though, my worry is not so much that Ed is...
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  • Sarah
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