Cable: Tories are lying about not hiking tax
BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable came out swinging yesterday, accusing the Conservatives of lying to the electorate by promising not to raise taxes to balance the books.
In an on-message speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, Cable said his party would raise taxes and cut spending to deal with the deficit, adding that anything other than this would not achieve results.
“Any politician who tells you that the next government can balance the budget and avoid tax increases is lying to you,” Cable said, in a direct hit at the chancellor.
The business secretary also appeared to draw a red line over further cuts to the welfare budget, something George Osborne has said he is in favour of.
“The Tories’ proposal to take another £25bn or more out of welfare and unprotected government departments will do great harm to valuable services: to imagine otherwise is fantasy. I will categorically not go along with this,” he said.
The Conservatives responded with in an unusually restrained manner, perhaps setting the tone for the next eight months which will see the two coalition parties shift further away from each other in the run up to the general election.
“We respectfully disagree with Mr Cable – if the Lib Dems want to argue for tax increases on working people, then we will make our case for tax cuts to the electorate,” a Tory party source said last night.