| Labour MP has been taken in by Government spin over tax rise 4th May '08 |
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Liberal Democrats
in North East Somerset have accused Labour MP Dan Norris of letting down local
people on low and modest incomes, by backing the Government over the doubling of
the 10p tax rate without an adequate compensation package.
Gail Coleshill,
the Future Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for North East Somerset,
said:
“Our MP has been taken in by the Government. The Government’s compensation promise offers no guarantees at all. The Government won’t say how many people it will help. They won’t say if it will be permanent, or just for one year. And they already seem to have gone back on their promise that it will all be backdated. How do the Government expect people on below average incomes to pay today’s bills with money they won’t get for another six months? And there is no guarantee they will get it even then.
Last Monday night
MPs had a chance to guarantee that the eventual compensation package would be
adequate one Sadly Dan Norris voted against this. He seems content to trust Gordon Brown on this, when all evidence so far suggests he cannot be trusted on this issue. It was Gordon Brown after all, who originally claimed no-one would lose out under the changes. Labour MPs have now been fooled twice on the 10p rate. First in March last year, when they cheered Gordon Brown’s budget and it was left to the Liberal Democrats to point out he was upping tax on the low paid. Now they have been fooled again by a promise of compensation which has more holes than a fishing net. It is clear that our Labour MP cannot be relied on to stand up for local people on low and modest incomes which is why more and more people are turning to the Liberal Democrats as the only party of fairness in Britain today.”
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