Furious Jeremy Hunt demands Labour deletes Tory tax ‘lie’
Jeremy Hunt discusses tackling problems with inflation
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has today accused the Labour party of political dishonesty over a new attack ad published to Twitter.
The Labour Party, which is increasingly using controversial social media adverts to grab attention, posted an eye-catching black and yellow graphic reading: “The Tories have let slip their secret plan to raid wages for £50 billion of taxes”.
The graphic was accompanied with text reading: “Jeremy Hunt’s closest advisers want a huge tax raid on wages that will leave businesses and working people worse off”.
“Workers in Britain already face the highest tax burden in seventy years due to 25 Tory tax rises since 2010. It’s time for change.”
While Labour is hoping to portray themselves as a party of low taxes, the claim appears incredibly dishonest.
READ MORE: Jeremy Hunt plans major change to benefits to fund tax cuts before next election
It was taken from a Mail on Sunday article, which reported that Sushil Wadhwani, who sits on Jeremy Hunt’s Economic Advisory Council, had suggested that all annual company pay rises above three percent be taxed at 100 percent to curb inflation.
The article appeared in the Financial Times, which made clear Mr Wadhwani was writing “in a personal capacity”.
Mr Wadhwani also suggested the policy as just one “example” of things the government could do to bring inflation under control.
Nor is the Economic Advisory Council party political, but instead made up of business and economic experts from the top of industries.
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This afternoon, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hit back at Labour, saying their claim about a tax raid is “simply not true”.
Mr Hunt said: “A Treasury minister confirmed on the record last night that this is not and will not be our policy”.
The Chancellor demanded Labour deletes the claim, and answer questions posed by his Treasury deputy Andrew Griffith about what taxes Labour plans on raising to fund the £100 billion black hole currently created by Labour’s existing green policy pledges.
Mr Griffith demanded to know whether Labour will rule out increasing VAT or inheritance tax for the duration of the next parliament.
The Treasury Minister said the public would appreciate to know Labour’s answers “as a matter of urgency”.
The latest party political attack by the Labour Party was fronted by Darren Jones, who was given a major promotion to Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in Sir Keir’s reshuffle last week.
His Tory opposite Mr Griffith suggested the role of Chief Secretary to the Treasury is primarily about ensuring spending pledges are costed and maintaining fiscal discipline from colleagues, rather than writing letters to him about fake Tory policies.
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