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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. 

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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.”