Mark Oliver writes: Junior transport minister Charlotte Atkins told BBC Radio Stoke listeners today that Labour planned to scrap the council tax "because it was regressive".
The Labour election machine responded quickly and Ms Atkins, Labour candidate for Staffordshire Moorlands, said shortly afterwards: "Sorry. I accept that I got this wrong. Our policy is not to scrap council tax but to retain and reform it."
Local government minister Nick Raynsford repeated the same line, explaining, "Charlotte simply got it wrong."
Council tax is proving to be something of a vexed election issue.
Mr Raynsford said yesterday that Labour's plans no longer include creating higher council tax bands after the Tories claimed this was a "ticking time bomb" for £2bn in stealth taxes. Seemingly on the back foot, the minister added that the government was still committed to a fairer system that did not increase the overall tax yield.
The Liberal Democrats say they would abolish it and the Tories say they would give council tax discounts of up to £500 a year to pensioner households.
No doubt with some glee, the Liberal Democrat party chairman Matthew Taylor said of Ms Atkins's gaffe today: "This is a government minister admitting the Liberal Democrats are right that council tax is unfair and should be scrapped. Labour needs to come clean and tell the public before May 5 what its plans for council tax really are - who will pay more and who will pay less?"
Jackie Ashley writes in the Guardian comment pages today that Labour has been hiding behind the Lyons report on council tax, without giving any commitments about what it will do, and indeed Mr Raynsford mentioned the report today. She argues that Labour are "more than a little interested" in the Lib Dems suggestion yesterday about a local income tax, which she says "would certainly be a fairer way of raising money for local services than the present system".
