After his victories on nuclear power, tuition fees and ‘Osbornomics’, Nick Clegg’s winning streak has continued. In line with the leadership’s position, Lib Dem delegates have just voted not to reintroduce the 50p tax rate and to maintain the 45p rate, albeit by a margin of just four (224-220).
While party president Tim Farron had called in my interview with him for the party to back the higher rate both to raise additional revenue and to demonstrate that “we are all in it together”, Clegg said this morning: “To drive home the message of tax reform I think changing one very specific symbolic tax rate is not really the key part of the matter.” The key intervention in the debate came from Vince Cable, who reminded delegates that the party’s previous policy was to support a 40p rate alongside a mansion tax and argued that excessively high taxes on income could have negative economic effects.
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