24.09.12
Clegg calls for further taxing of top 10%
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said he will continue to oppose further welfare cuts.
But he admitted it would be “wholly unrealistic” to expect welfare to be immune from cuts through 2015-16, as it represents a third of public spending.
At the first day of the Liberal Democrats’ annual conference in Brighton, Clegg told delegates: “We will not start, as some people are suggesting, at the bottom and work up.
“We will not allow some of these wild suggestions that are coming from the right of British politics that all the savings should come from welfare, and that we should scoop out a £10bn-sized hole in welfare.”
But he added he would also reject “wild suggestions” that he “wave a wand and put a freeze on benefits for two years”.
Future approaches to increasing taxes on Britain’s richest 10% of the population were possible, he said.
“The mansion tax is not the only way in which you can make people at the top make a fair contribution to this huge national effort of balancing our books, and we've already demonstrated to you, through capital gains tax, through stamp duty, through tax avoidance, already ensured that the top 10% pay more, and we can do more than that.”
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