"9 out of 10 people are raising 10p on the doorstep"

A senior Labour backbencher MP - not at all a 'usual suspect' - has just given the government both barrels on scrapping the 10p rate. I was struck by how angry up he was. He claimed that over recess, "nine out of ten people" were raising this on the doorsteps and this is bigger than the row over the 75p pension rise.

Interestingly, he suggested Labour high command are making it worse. They have just sent out another briefing paper to MPs "defending the indefensible" by saying 80 per cent will be better off (what about the other 20 per cent who are all the lowest paid). This is the third such document this week, he huffed, yet there is no clear message coming from the Treasury and Number 10 about how they will help. He suggests a one off payment for those affected.

The only bright spot for the government is that many Labour MPs will be unable to support an amendment tabled by Frank Field (who says politics isn't personal). Something tabled John McFall, chair of the Treasury Select Committee and longtime Brown supporter, has the potential to prove much more troublesome.

Comments

[Warren Feist]

Gordon Brown, what a complete c***!

[Gordon Shed]

Alistair Darling appears to confuse the aboltion of the 10% tax rate with the 10 Commandments which came from God and cannot be changed by man, unlike an unfair budget.

[Judes]

A pity MPS were not angry a year ago when Brown thought up this tax change. It is only now that voting is to take place and they could lose seats that they are suddenly angry. I am one of the people on a low income who is now paying an extra £240 a year tax and no I am not entitled to any rebates, tax credits, etc.

[Allan Giles Reading]

I wish to retract my earlier comments regarding Gordon Brown and the 10p row
Many thanks

Allan Giles

[Boomer]

How easily 5.3m working voters who are NOT a drain on the tax credits/benefits system can be ignored by this government. If this number is so insignificant to G. Brown, surely abolishing all tax on incomes below £18k would also be feasible?
These potential voters are the working and deserving poor who have done all the 'right' things- worked/saved/paid their taxes and for their paltry pensions- at a time when the undeserving and feckless poor and sturdy beggars are damned by the media for being coddled by Labour. How dare Gordon get the hump with his backbenchers when even they point out that keeping 3 generations of unemployed in superanuated shiftlessness but refusing to recognise 5.3m people who have and are endeavouring to live respectably on modest incomes...
This is socialism, Gordon, but not as we used to know it.

[Jack Knight]

It's not rocket science!
Why on earth can't they just simplify the whole shebang? The tax regime is ridiculously complicated, costly to administer and in many cases unfair. Can we not just have a flat 20% on earned income for those earning over £10K? Then the rich won't spend so much on avoidance advice and just cough up, the poor pay less and the long suffering middle classes are for once, treated fairly.

[Publius]

Prudence punished, fecklessness rewarded. I live modestly, I save, I spend less than I earn, I am not eligible for handouts, and would not demean myself to go begging the haughty bureaucrats for them even if I were eligible. So I suffer, while those who live with a sod-the-consequences approach to life are given my money.

[Alan]

Gordon and his sidekicks are completly out of touch with working people, you only have to look at how they all have their snoughts in the troughs on expense to realise that the Labour Party no longer supports the "working class""

[wt]

vote labour, vote poverty

i'm a full time working on 13k per year, and my boss tells me its not worth me working full time anymore,, as i'm going to lose out, thanks to the greed and feeding the uk fatcats, i may have to go part time and unable to claim benifits, thanks to our goverment we are being targeted for the errors and mistake they have caused, how f**ing unfair..

[Phil A]

I think Gordon (as usual) just assumes he has a god given right to keep dipping his hand in everyone's pay packet, and I consider his move on the 10p tax rate hits the lowest paid who have a real need. If simplification really was his issue, he could have raised the tax free level, and neutralised the change.. he didn't. And while all the furore is happening, did "middle england" earning just over what is now a modest £35,000 pa had their NI ceiling lifted-- yes if you are middle income you are now paying an extra 11% or £550 on another £5K of your income. When you see your pay packet you'll notice you got hit with the 10p AND the NI lift... more sleight of hand... as usual stealth everywhere, but the elections are coming, and so will Gordons P45...

[Jim]

Brown did away with the 10p band, and seemed to be not aware of the likely consequences. Now he is aware, and says he will do something sometime, but does not know what or when. What an idiot he is. When action is taken, will he refund the extra tax grabbed from 6 April 2008. I very much doubt it. Yet again Brown has proved his incompetence, and his departure cannot come too soon.

[Peter Moore]

It is fair to say that the analysis of all this is very weak. The facts are that this type of change is very very difficult to appreciate, as many of those worse off will be part of families who actually gain, so the overall impact is very difficult to judge. The conservatives, and etons version of 'ant n dec' are just publicity hounds...

[Mike]

Several issues come to mind of the constant fiddling by Brown/Darling with the tax & benefits systems to ensure he creates a socially engineered class of people allied to Labour. The UK's tax system is the most innefficient system in the world delivering around 1 pound for every 3 pounds it costs to manage in benefits. Add to this it unfairly discriminates against the old and frail who can't master all the contradictory forms and then fail to claim. Even if you could understand them, many groups are still exempt from any form of benefit. The concessions that Darling announced have no effect on pensioners drawing their pensions in other countries as they are excluded from all current and any new tax credits, so they remain worse off after the scrapping of the 10P rate. Without changing to a properly tiered form of direct taxation (positive & negative) and scapping all of Labours dubious benefits we have the worst of all worlds. Gordon Brown has created a tax system of obfuscation, dishonest promises, an inability of enforcement, unfairness in two directions and the whole thing is nothing more than a crock of s***.

[Tony]

The Labour MPs celebrating the 2% tax cut con where doing so when they thought that an election was due in the Autumn - before anyone would find out that they were worse off.

Or am I being cynical???

[Tony]

were, not where.

Better spend more time checking the small print. Much like last year's budget......

[Lyn martin]

I wrote to gordan brown after the budget 2007. I am a widow of 61 on state pension and superanuation . I asked him "when is a pensioner not a pensioner.I told him when she is a woman between 60-64. We are allowed a state pension at 60 but have to wait 5 years to get the pensioners tax allowances and with the effects of the 10p tax being abolished I am paying even more tax. The pensioners allowances should be for anyone of pensionable age. This government discriminates against women and also widows as there is no longer a widows pension . they have certainly lost my vote. It remains to be seen what they bring in to comensate the 60 -64 year olds

[brian johnson]

it was rather silly to trust new labour being a crummy form of a labour party,wilson and former labour pms and leaders must be turning in their graves. a total betrayal of the labour movement...