Mel Stride made waves today by saying he would hike income tax is he were Rachel Reeves, that being the “cleanest” option. City and Tory sources express their dismay…
Some of that dismay was visible today at a TaxPayers’ Alliance event. David Frost broke the news to Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith, saying:
“I would also say we mustn’t concede ground to the opposition, however tactical it is, and I know those in the Shadow Cabinet won’t be able to say this, but I was a bit disappointed to hear our Shadow Chancellor just now saying that if he was in Rachel Reeves’ position he would raise income tax. I thought our view was that we should be cutting spending, rather than increasing any kind of tax, and expect to hear that quoted back at us. It is really important to have consistency of messaging.”
Griffith looked visibly indignant and dismayed. Laterin the event, Frost added:
“Well obviously, I made a bit of a jibe at Mel at the start, in my remarks. I think to be fair to him if we must, he was comparing, I think, you know the choice between lots and lots of tinkering tax rises and one simple clean tax rise. And obviously it’s a rule of politics not to answer questions you don’t want to answer or don’t want to be framed in that way, so I think it’s a pity he said what he did. We should be looking to cut spending not contemplating raising any tax at the moment.”
At that moment Griffith looked so uncomfortable that he asked the chairman not to come to him for remarks on the topic. Ructions…
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