Labour's Tax & Liberal Democrat Fairness - Letter to Sittingbourne News Extra

This letter is a reply to a contribution from Mr Barry Pearson who advocates we should vote Labour because they would take more from the top 1%.

Barry Pearson thinks we should vote Labour because, as he puts it, they will take more from the top 1%. Oh, what a short memory he has. Does he remember what the top rate of tax was from June 1997 to April 2010 under a Labour government? It was 40%. And what is it now? Yes, Barry, it is 45% - so the top 1% are paying 5% more income tax now than they did under Labour.

On top of that, Labour turned a blind eye to various tax avoidance schemes. The coalition government, on the other hand, are clamping down on such measures and have reclaimed £9 billion a year for the Treasury.

Under Labour, the amount you earned before you paid tax was just over £6,000. Thanks to the Liberal Democrats top demand, it is now at £10,500 - that is £800 a year in the pockets of all lower and middle incomes. This policy has proved so popular that even David Cameron is copying it.

And above all, maybe Mr Pearson has forgotten Labour's famous last words - 'sorry, there's no money left'.

In the coalition, Liberal Democrats have put fairness of taxes as the number one priority and, despite the dire state that Labour left the country in, some progress has been made. There is a lot more to do of course, but it is now the Liberal Democrats, not Labour, who, in government, have worked towards fairness in taxation, and only the Liberal Democrats will continue to do so.