Budget special: Brown Budget will hit poor hardest - Tottenham Conservatives 21/03/07

Commenting on Gordon Brown's budget, Haringey Conservative spokesman, Justin Hinchcliffe said:

"The big increase in taxation is a doubling of the starting rate of income tax. The income tax changes announced in the budget will mean that anyone earning less than around £15,000 will pay more in income tax. The 2p cut in the basic rate is welcome, but, combined with the abolition of the 10% 'starter rate', let us be clear this is an income tax cut for the very few dressed up as a tax cut for the poor.

"While the Chancellor has taken some of the key headline policies from the Conservatives, he has got the fundamental point wrong: we need genuine tax cuts for low and middle income earners now. Taking money from hard-pressed working families with one hand, then forcing them to beg for their own money back from the other hand in the form of tax credits is no substitute.

"Those on low incomes will now experience even higher rates of taxation and this will do nothing to increase incentives to work."

Justin added: "Gordon Brown is not doing enough for the hard working families, young professionals, nurses or police officers struggling with rising living costs. The Chancellor had the chance to use this final budget to show that he was listening to the voices of the people of Britain. But he has delivered a budget of missed opportunities. He had the chance to build a fairer Britain through tax cuts for the low paid - but in fact he has increased income tax for the lowest paid. He had the chance to create a greener Britain by taxing pollution - but he shunned it. And he had the chance to shape a prudent Britain by saving billions of pounds on government waste - but he avoided it.

"Gordon Brown has spurned all of these opportunities. He has concentrated on his own political succession. Despite the Chancellor's reputation for prudence, this government has wasted large sums of public money on unnecessary and unpopular measures. Now it is planning to waste more. Identity cards will cost at least £6 billion - and perhaps as much as £18 billion."