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3 April 2015

The cost of a Conservative chancellor: Labour unveil new poster

Ahead of the new financial year, Ed Balls will unveil a new poster attacking the cost of the Conservative government.

By Stephen Bush

Ahead of the new tax year on Monday, Labour have released a new campaign poster designed to expose the £1100 a year cost to families of the Conservatives’ economic plans for the coming parliament.

On a campaign stop in West Yorkshire, Ed Balls will say:

George Osborne and David Cameron have raised VAT and cut the tax credits of working people, but given millionaires a huge tax cut. And our new figures today show how families with children have been hit hardest of all.”

New figures from the Institute of Fiscal Studies show that a dual-earner couple  on average earnings with two children will be worse off to the tune of £1,700. A dual-earner couple on the minimum wage will be £1,500 worse off, while a lone parent working 25 hours a week on the minimum wage will be £1,800 worse off.

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The figures include not only the rises in VAT and cuts to tax credits, but also the changes to the personal allowance, which will take effect from next week. 

But the Tories have hit back with their own figures. Priti Patel, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said: “Ed Miliband’s tax rises will cut the average working family’s pay packet by £3,028, and Labour’s debt and borrowing will cause economic chaos.”

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