Tax rich to beat downturn, PM urged

Health minister Ivan Lewis said the Government needed to show that it could come up with practical measures to support people at a time of global uncertainty.

Writing in The Sunday Times, he said that voters expected a Labour government to reward hard work by protecting their quality of life.

Ministers, he said, should be prepared to target help on the struggling middle classes as well as the lower paid.

"Our duty is to act decisively and make sure we understand what it is like to cope with rising food, fuel and utility bills," he said.

"If as a result of the current economic situation the only way to help hard-pressed middle-class families is to ask the highest earners to pay more, then serious consideration should be given to that.

"Yes, protect those on the lowest incomes but also help the hard-working middle classes with large mortgage commitments who are neither rich nor poor; the people who work long hours for their two holidays a year, leisure club membership, meals out with family and friends and ability to buy their children nice things."

His intervention comes as the Government is already under pressure from Labour backbenchers and trade unions to impose a windfall tax on the energy companies - a measure Chancellor Alistair Darling has made clear that he opposes.