ANKARA
The Conservatives will introduce a law to guarantee a five-year “tax lock” on key U.K. taxes if they win next week’s general election, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Wednesday.
The legislation, which would be introduced in the first 100 days of a fresh term in office, would prohibit raising income tax, sales tax and national insurance in the next parliament.
"Working people in this country have paid enough tax,” Cameron said while campaigning in Birmingham. “As this economy recovers, I want you to be able to keep more of the money to spend as you choose.”
Ed Balls, Labour’s finance spokesman, dismissed the policy as “the most last-minute desperate gimmick I have seen in an election in a very long time.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, he added: “These promises were made by David Cameron in his manifesto. He has decided, three weeks on, people aren’t believing them, he is going to try again.”
The Conservatives had previously pledged not to raise the taxes.
“It says something about the skepticism of electorate if politicians have to pledge new law guaranteeing something they promised to do anyway,” Sky News’ political correspondent Sophy Ridge tweeted.
In the 2010 general election, the Conservatives promised not to raise sales tax, known as Value Added Tax (VAT). However, after a year in office they increased the rate from 17.5 percent to 20 percent.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, William Hague, the Conservative Leader of the Commons, blamed this on the “almost Greek-level size of deficit” left by the previous Labour government.
"It is possible to give this guarantee in this parliament, which would not have been possible in previous parliaments, because we have put the finances back on track," he said.
Labour has ruled out a VAT increase but said that it would increase in the top rate of income tax from 45 to 50 percent.
Cameron’s promise caused embarrassment for Chancellor George Osborne who, when in opposition in 2009, attacked a similar plan by Labour to introduce a law controlling government borrowing and debt.
