Top earners 'face income tax rise'

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The Chancellor was said to be unveiling the plan for a 45% top rate in his Pre-Budget Report on Monday.

But the new rate, to be levied on those earning more than £150,000 a year, would not be introduced until 2011 - after the next general election.

The strategy would mean the proposal would not come in unless it is endorsed by voters when Gordon Brown goes to the country.

According to the BBC and The Sun, it is part of the Government's long-term plan to get the British finances back on course after the expected borrowing surge.

The Treasury refused to comment on "speculation", but ministers have stressed today Mr Darling will set out in the PBR how he plans to rein in soaring debt at a later date.

A new top rate of tax would put further ground between Labour and the Tories after Conservative leader David Cameron announced last week he would no longer match Government spending plans from 2010/11.

Labour has been committed since 1997 to no increases in income tax, including for the duration of this Parliament.

The current top rate of tax - 40 pence in the pound - hits earnings of more than £39,825 a year, affecting about 4 million people.

Robert Chote, director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, estimated that the suggested 45% band would hit about 400,000 people. "You are not going to raise an enormous amount of revenue from this," he said.