I'll halt stealth tax rises, pledges Shadow Chancellor George Osborne

George Osborne will today promise an end to complicated 'stealth tax' hikes, which he claims have shattered voters' trust and damaged Britain's reputation as a haven for investors.

The Shadow Chancellor will commit a Tory government to radical reforms that would clearly spell out the winners and losers in future Budgets.

Geoffrey Howe, the former Tory chancellor whose resignation in 1990 helped bring about the downfall of Margaret Thatcher, is to draw up plans for a semi-independent Office of Tax Simplification, which would scrutinise all tax changes.

Mr Osborne is also expected to put tax cuts at the heart of the Tories' drive to win power, alongside bold pledges on business taxes.

And he is understood to be working on plans to slash corporation tax, although it is not clear whether these will be unveiled today.

Buoyed by the positive response to his intention to free everyone but millionaires from inheritance tax, Mr Osborne will claim his party would be "low-tax Tories".

Mr Osborne, addressing the Policy Exchange think tank in London, will also launch an allout assault on Alistair Darling, claiming his brief tenure as Chancellor has been so "cackhanded" that he will "never recover".

He will attack Mr Darling's "still unravelling" Pre-Budget Report as "ill-judged", its increases in capital gains tax, and its "clumsy" tax hikes on wealthy foreigners, which have resulted in a "toxic mix of complexity, uncertainty and negative signals to the rest of the world".

"They have been a perfect lesson in how not to make tax policy," Mr Osborne will say.

"Badly thought-through proposals, announced with no consultation, made with no reference to underlying principles and in ignorance of the economic consequences, shaped entirely by a cack-handed attempt to outfox the opposition - then changed and re-changed as a dithering government tries to minimise the political damage.

"I suspect the Chancellor of the Exchequer will never recover a reputation for competence."

Mr Osborne will also say that Labour's Budget and Pre-Budget Report have been "driven by the shortest of short-term political considerations with little regard for the longer-term economic consequences".

"The results have been catastrophic for public trust in taxation and for Britain's reputation as a place to invest," he will claim.

"Last spring's Budget attempted to present an increase in income tax on the lowest paid as a reduction in headline income tax rates.

"The con trick lasted all of three hours before it was exposed."