Pre-Budget Report

For the hon. Gentleman to shake his head is simply disingenuous. On the big test of the PBR—that is, the restoration of economic and fiscal credibility—it was a resounding failure. Markets were dismayed, the deputy Prime Minister was incandescent and it was not much of a crowd pleaser either. I shall spare the House the list of quotations from various newspapers on the day following the PBR. It is astonishing that the Chancellor not only failed to begin the process of cutting spending but announced a further increase in public spending and financed it by slapping an extra tax on everybody who earns more than £20,000 a year by raising employee national insurance contributions. They will now go up by a total of 1 per cent., costing someone on £30,000 an extra £200 a year and someone on average earnings an extra £60 a year. There is a similar burden on employers at a time when we are trying to create jobs. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has made the obvious point that employee and employer NICs are the same tax. Both are incident on wages, so anyone who earns £14,000 or more a year will be hit by Labour's double tax whammy on employer and employee NICs. The Prime Minister is determined to fight the coming election on a class war battlefield, but it seems rather strange to start by feeding the Chancellor's spending addiction with a tax that impacts on the millions of decent, hard-working people in this country who earn £14,000, £15,000 or £20,000 a year. If we win the general election, our No. 1 priority will be to try to avoid Labour's new national insurance tax increases on the many.