National Insurance Rises ..the debate goes on!
The ongoing ‘debate’ over national insurance rises continued last week with all parties attempting to put the best deal forward and discredit competitors.
Government, Opposition & Business in National Insurance rise row
A row over National Insurance rises has escalated after business leaders said claims they had been “deceived” into backing Tory plans were “patronising”. Chancellor Alistair Darling accused the Tories of “peddling a deception” after 23 top bosses backed proposals to curb National Insurance increases.
Mr Darling said the bosses should take a “long hard look” at the Tory plans, rather than accepting “flimsy advice”.
But two of them hit back instantly, accusing Labour of a “tax on jobs”. Next boss Simon Wolfson, a longstanding Conservative supporter, said in a statement:
“Of course we have not been deceived. The principle is a very simple one. It is question of, do we pay for government profligacy through increased taxes or do we urge them to save money in a way that businesses have?”
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 23 senior businessmen endorsed George Osborne‟s pledge to halt the increase for those earning less than £45,000 if the Conservatives win the election. Nine of the 23 signatories to the letter run FTSE 100 companies and a further five are in the FTSE 250. Between them they employ more than 500,000 people.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said the Conservative plans were a “cynical deception” that could not be achieved without increasing VAT, as he said the Conservatives had done after winning elections in 1979 and 1992.
He said shadow chancellor George Osborne was “like a kid in a sweet shop, who thinks he can just grab sweets from every jar without paying for them”.
“Of course there are some in business who are going to support what appears to be a pain-free tax cut. I mean, who wouldn’t, if offered that?,” said Lord Mandelson.
“But the point is, this is not pain-free and Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne are peddling a deception.”
The full list of signatories of the letter: Sir Anthony Bamford (JCB); Bill Bolsover (Aggregates Industries); Dominic Burke (Jardine Lloyd Thompson); Ian Cheshire (Kingfisher); Neil Clifford (Kurt Geiger); Mick Davis (Xstrata); Aidan Harvey (Tullow Oil); Lord Harris (Carpetright); Justin King (Sainsbury’s); Sir Chris Gent (GlaxoSmithKline); Ben Gordon (Mothercare); John Lovering (Mitchells and Butler); Graham Mackay (SAB Miller); Alistair McGeorge (Matalan); Nicolas Moreau (Axa UK); Stephen Murphy (Virgin Group); Alan Parker (Whitbread); Sir Stuart Rose (Marks and Spencer); Paul Walsh (Diageo); Joseph Wan (Harvey Nichols); Simon Wolfson (Next); Zameer Choudrey (Bestway Cash and Carry); Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (easyGroup)
Article Source: APSCo Newsletter 29 March 2010
Tags: Alistair Darling, Lord Mandelson, National Insurance Rises
