The Liberal Democrats would seek to increase taxes on the wealthy as part of efforts to reduce the deficit, Nick Clegg has said.
Speaking to Sky News from the party's conference in Glasgow, the Deputy Prime Minister accused Chancellor George Osborne of defying the prevailing economic wisdom by trying to cut the UK's national deficit without tax hikes on the rich and instead focusing on cuts in public spending and welfare.
He said his party would insist on around 20% of the £100bn deficit being paid off through higher taxes on the rich, such as their proposed £1.5bn "mansion tax" or a £1bn reduction in tax breaks for wealthy people's pensions.
But he refused to give more details of his "red lines" in any coalition negotiations.
He said: "I know that George Osborne has decided - in a way that I don't think you'll find a single mainstream economist in the world agreeing with him - that you can balance the books by only asking the working-age poor to make additional sacrifices or only by gouging out more and more money from unprotected public services like the police, social services, social care and education.
"It's got to be a balance and we've broadly kept that balance during this coalition Government.
"I think, in taxation, you should start at the top and work down, not start at the bottom."
Mr Clegg signalled a more aggressive approach to the Lib Dems' coalition partners, as Vince Cable launched a stinging attack on "lying" Tories who suggest the Government can balance its books without raising taxes.
David Cameron had used his speech to the Tory Party conference to unveil his crowd-pleasing plan to raise the threshold of the 40p rate of tax to £50,000 - taking millions of middle income earners out of the higher tax band.
At the same time the Prime Minister promised a Conservative government would eliminate the deficit in the public finances by 2018 - and would achieve its target purely by cutting spending and without putting up taxes.
This was dismissed by Mr Cable in his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat party conference in Glasgow.
The Business Secretary said: "The truth is more taxes will be needed. To contribute to deficit reduction and also to address unacceptable inequalities.
"Any politician who tells you that the next Government can balance the budget and avoid tax increases is lying to you."
And his comments were backed by former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown, who said they were "truthful".
Lord Ashdown told Sky News: "I stick with Vince's words. Any party that tells you that we can balance what is a phenomenal deficit problem still to be tackled, which has now had not £12bn, but probably of the order of £40bn added to it by the Prime Minister's promise of tax cuts, without saying a word about where they will come from, is not telling the truth.
"You have two levers, two mechanisms, to control the deficit, to reduce the deficit, and to control the economy.
"One is public expenditure cuts and the other is taxes. It's simply economically illiterate to throw one of those away."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Clegg: Lib Dems Would Ask Rich To Pay More Tax
Dengan url
http://cembururabun.blogspot.com/2014/10/clegg-lib-dems-would-ask-rich-to-pay.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Clegg: Lib Dems Would Ask Rich To Pay More Tax
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Clegg: Lib Dems Would Ask Rich To Pay More Tax
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar