29.08.12
Tax the wealthy – Clegg
The wealthiest people in England should pay more tax for a limited amount of time, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has proposed.
This would deliver greater fairness as part of a “longer economic war”, he suggested. Full details of the scheme will be announced at the upcoming Liberal Democrats annual conference.
In an interview with the Guardian, Clegg questioned: “In addition to our standing policy on things like the mansion tax, is there a time-limited contribution you can ask in some way or another from people of considerable wealth so they feel they are making a contribution to the national effort?”
He added: “While I am proud of some of the things we have done as a government I actually think we need to really hard-wire fairness into what we do in the next phases of fiscal restraint.
“If we don’t do that I don’t think the process will be either socially or politically sustainable or acceptable.”
But critics have dismissed his idea. Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie said: “Nick Clegg is once again taking the British people for fools. He talks about a tax on the wealthiest, but he voted for the tax cut for millionaires in George Osborne’s Budget.
“And he has supported a failing economic plan which has pushed Britain into a double-dip recession and is leading to borrowing going up by a quarter so far this year.”
And Tory backbencher Bernard Jenkin MP dismissed the plans as a pre-party conference “easy clap line”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “I know this isn’t a very fashionable view but if you go on raising taxes on rich people – and that's why we had to cut and why Nick Clegg agreed to cut the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p – you drive wealth abroad.
“We’ve seen a lot of hedge funds moving abroad because of the tax system in this country. We've got to be very careful we don't strangle the goose that lays the golden egg.”
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Image c. Liberal Democrats