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Lord Mandelson hints Labour may hit more top earners with higher taxes
Joe Murphy, Political Editor24 Sep 2009
A hint that income tax on the wealthy will need to go up again after the election was given by Lord Mandelson today.
In a remarkably candid interview, he warned that “exceptional measures” may be needed to tackle the country's record £175 billion deficit.
Asked about rumours that Labour's new 50p top rate — due to hit people earning more than £150,000 next year —could be levied on those earning £100,000-plus, the Business Secretary. replied: “The Chancellor will look at the criteria and the timing.
“Remember we will need exceptional measures to bring about the necessary rebalancing of our finances in the medium term.”
His comments come a week after leaked Treasury papers showed spending will have to be cut by 9.3 per cent based on current plans unless public finances recover much more quickly than expected, putting pressure on Labour to raise taxes after the election to meet its pledge to protect frontline public services.
In a wide-ranging interview, Lord Mandelson was also frank about Gordon Brown's shortcomings as a political performer.
He admitted the Prime Minister lacked the “razzmatazz” expected of a modern leader and appealed to Mr Brown to let the public see his “lighter side” more often.
“I wish he would show in public the light side of him that he shares with us in private,” he told the Daily Mail.
“Ideally, would he be a politician who's up for public relations and razzmatazz alongside his serious side and his devotion to getting policies right? Well, ideally, yes.”
With questions swirling among Labour ministers and MPs about Mr Brown's leadership, Lord Mandelson admitted the Premier should have reacted more quickly to Tory attacks on his personal honesty.
“Perhaps Gordon should have been more alert to that,” he mused. “But if he had spent more time thinking about how the Tories were pushing a negative image of him, he would have spent fewer hours on devoting himself to the country's problems.”
The leadership issue burst into life with Charles Clarke's searing interview in the Evening Standard yesterday, where he urged Mr Brown to quit before the election for the sake of his own “dignity”.
Chancellor Alistair Darling hit back in today's Spectator, saying: “I've really got no time for people who say if only there was someone else, it'll be all right. That's bollocks, you know. We need to come out fighting — and that burden rests on each and every one of us.”
Yesterday the Prime Minister was forced to fend off claims that he might resign because he is going blind.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News in America, he was questioned over reports that he was using larger and larger text sizes as his remaining vision declined.
Mr Brown said: “I lost the sight in one of my eyes playing sports — I was playing rugby when I was very young.
“I had all sorts of operations, I then had one operation on the other eye and that was very successful so my sight is not at all deteriorating.”
Earlier, responding to Mr Clarke, the Prime Minister insisted: “I am healthy and I am very fit.”
Reader views (13)
Their "exceptional measures" have taxed the country into recession and wasteful bureaucrats will soon all be unemployed. Bibi Nu Labor... NEVER AGAIN!
- Steveo, London NW1, 25/09/2009 08:03
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Will Mandelson, along with Suger, rightly get the boot from the Lords when Labour lose the election ?
- Michael, London, UK, 24/09/2009 19:11
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He might well have full sight on how much
tax he can extract from all honest earners.
But, with all due respect, he is half sighted when it comes
to speaking the truth about all of us paying the bills due
to his policies.
- Macdangler, Wimbledon SW19, 24/09/2009 16:49
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I don't know why Mandy is wasting his breath: come next May 2nd he will be relaxing on Deripraska's yacht, spending his multiple pensions and in no way able to influence fiscal policy.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 24/09/2009 16:22
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Agreed the circumstances required are to get rid of the worst Govt in memory. Bankrupted the country, ruined our pensions, lost our savings, edged us ever closer to a police state, invented hundreds of thousands of non jobs, encouraged open door immigration and asylum, wastes our taxes without getting value, featherd their nests with expenses, preach democracy but deny us a vote on Europe, do nothing about rip off Britain, the list of their mistakes and sheer stupidity is endless.
- Ang Grey, London, 24/09/2009 14:39
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>>Lord Mandelson hints Labour may hit more top earners with higher taxes
He can hint all he likes, but come next May he and the rest of this bunch will be out of a job.
- Peter, Harrow, UK, 24/09/2009 14:35
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Is he the Prime Minister ? Is he the Chancellor? He is unelected with a history of dodgy deals and now every day we get a Mandy statement more NuLabour policy on the hoof.
- Tojo, Hythe, 24/09/2009 12:26
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In the death throws of a government Mandy is without morality.He will say anything knowing it will never matter as labour will not be in power for a few decades.
This is the guy who toadies up to the rich and famous. This is another tactic to blacken Brown
He only came back to get yet another pension. What a disgrace to the whole old labour movement.
- Terry, Hennebont France, 24/09/2009 12:00
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Mandelson and Brown now resemble Hitler and Goebbels during the closing stages of WW2,ie giving interviews and forecasts knowing full well that somebody else will be clearing up the awful mess that they will leave behind,it annoys me intensely when TV stations and newspapers waste their time trying to interview theses crooks,why bother?,you won't get the truth about anything.
- General Lee'Wright, Communist Britain., 24/09/2009 11:31
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Do that and more top earners will leave the country and the Revenue will get nothing at all. Alot more of us would not mind paying more tax if we were confident that the tax we are already paying was being used responsibly. We dont feel it is being used responsibly - look at MP's expenses, the money nspent on quangos, the non jobs in both central and local government,etc, etc, etc.
So Mandleson - put you house in order, then ask us for more money - if you still need it.
- Very Very Angry At Paying Tax For Mp'S Expeses, Home Counties, 24/09/2009 11:10
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At least Mandelson is admitting to the Labour tax the middleclasses agenda.
With the removal of any personal allowances on those earning £100K next year and a clear hint that taxation will be further extended, anyone in the middle income bracket will very soon discover that their earning will equal less than 40% of their salary.
I suspect the tipping point for the middleclasses is when they pay more in taxes to the state than they take home, which is fast approaching.
The only other system I am aware of that penalises the middleclass so badly is called communism.
- Stephen, Swindon, 24/09/2009 10:50
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Joe Public is not in the slightest bit interested in anything Meddleslime has to say.
Instead of giving Meddleslime columns of newsprint, why not allow Joe Public to balance the spin and waffle from Downing Street - not that anyone in government would take a blind bit of notice of the electorate in Third World banana republic police state UK.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 24/09/2009 09:55
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Indicating that there will be higher taxes for the wealthy, is a cute way of saying that we'll all see increased taxes in one form or another very, very soon. Why would he take from a few when the many can fill the coffers more rapidly. Damning with feint praise is Mandleson's dumb insolence assessment of his malfunctioning Prime Minister. Even now, distancing himself from disaster in revealing his signature characteristic of disloyalty. Everything Mandleson says and does is like a caricature stock villain from pantomime.
- James, London, 24/09/2009 09:47
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