Tories urge Chancellor not to raise tax in five Budget tests
Andrew Griffith has set John Healey five tests for his first Budget on 28 October, led by a commitment to introduce no new taxes, as City groups and retail bosses step up their own warnings.
The Conservatives have urged John Healey not to raise tax when he delivers his first Budget at the end of the month.
Mr Healey's Conservative opposite number, Andrew Griffith, said the Chancellor should commit to introducing no new taxes on 28 October, urging him to "stop the tax ratchet". Mr Griffith said Labour's first two Budgets had put taxes on course for the highest level ever recorded, and that families and businesses were continuing to pay the price.
The call is one of five tests Mr Griffith said the Chancellor should meet. Alongside the commitment on new taxes, they are cutting the budget deficit, slashing welfare, increasing defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 and increasing youth employment.
John Healey must deliver a 'get a grip' Budget, instead of kicking the can down the road.Andrew Griffith
On defence, Mr Griffith noted that one of the tests was one Labour had set itself. When he resigned as defence secretary, Mr Healey said that 3 per cent of GDP on defence spending is "what Britain must set", Mr Griffith added.
The Conservative tests come as the bosses of Britain's biggest City groups intensified calls for the Chancellor not to raise taxes on banks. In a letter to Mr Healey, senior City figures including the chief executives of UK Finance and the CBI said Britain's financial services industry already faces a higher tax burden than its key international competitors.
The group argued that banking businesses are more likely to move their offices outside the UK and to other financial hubs if taxes increase.
Retail leaders have added their own warnings ahead of the Budget. The Sun reported that Jason Tarry, the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, had warned against penalising anchor retailers through higher business rates, that Stuart Machin, the chief executive of Marks and Spencer, had urged the Chancellor to reverse the mistakes of the last two Budgets, and that Kate Shoesmith of the British Chambers of Commerce had said any further tax rises on firms in the Budget would be the final nail in the coffin for the country's economic ambitions.
A Treasury spokesman said the Chancellor had been clear that fiscal discipline underwrites every promise the Government makes, and that he and the Prime Minister were in lockstep on meeting the fiscal rules. His focus was on backing British jobs, giving families and businesses breathing space and driving growth in every postcode, the spokesman said, and he would set out his decisions on 28 October.
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