Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has repeated his claim that the Tories have secret plans to raise VAT by 2p, saying it was the only way the Conservatives can fund their plan to carry on cutting taxes, including for millionaires after the election.
He also accused the Tories of planning deeper spending cuts in the next three years than those implemented in the past five years, adding he would end Tory use of job centres as a way to penalise and fine the unemployed, by making them a place where people could find jobs.
Balls said: “David Cameron and George Osborne are today telling people they’ve raised the personal tax allowance, but they won’t admit that for millions of people this has been more than wiped out by their VAT rise and tax credit cuts.
“It’s the same old story with the Tories – give with one hand, and take much more away with the other hand. Tory governments always raise VAT and, given another chance, they will do so again.”
Balls, speaking at a campaign event in Leeds, also accused Cameron of planning to cut the top rate of tax for those earning more than £150,000. He said: “Only yesterday, George Osborne repeatedly refused to rule out cutting the top rate of tax again for the very richest. David Cameron refused to rule it out as well.
“We now know this is their secret plan – another big tax cut for millionaires.”
He said in the past two years, the cut from 50p to 45p meant an £80,000 for the very richest in society.
In questions, he warned a strong SNP showing was not in the interests of voters in either Scotland or England.
“The SNP is a party which seeks to break up the United Kingdom. They are not a party which is going to want to pursue the interests of working people in Plymouth or London, or Manchester, or here in Leeds,” he said.
He claimed: “The SNP would actually extend Tory austerity, arguing they have no plans to reverse the cuts planned by the Tories in 2015-16.
“Fiscal autonomy – which is what the SNP called for – would mean they would have to deliver more than 7bn deeper spending cuts, or tax rises in Scotland, than under the Tory plans.
“The SNP getting in in Scotland will allow the Tories to get in in Westminster.”
He added: ”I cannot make a commitment to reverse the cuts made by the Tories, given we face a deficit of £75bn.”
He welcomed the reforms to pension annuities but said the way the reforms were being introduced was “deeply inadequate, rushed and risky”. He claimed the pension companies are not ready, and still recruiting advisers.
He also promised changes to way in which rail franchises are operating, saying the east coast line would not have gone to the private sector if a true level playing field had operated between public and private sector.
He said: “We will make sure there is a level playing field so the non-profit company can bid – if this system had been the east coast, the result would have come out quite differently.”
He also rejected George Osborne’s commitment to a northern powerhouse, saying Osborne had abolished regional development agencies and scrapped the northern taskforce.
He promised: “We will go much further than any Tory plans on devolution, promising all councils will be entitled to keep the revenue from any increase in their business rates – an offer Osborne has so far made only to Cambridge and Manchester.
He said: “What you learn with George Osborne is that it is all about the press release and politics and it is not about jobs.”
