Tories mistaken in Labour tax rise claims

David Cameron’s general election campaign ran into its first setback within hours of his visit to Buckingham Palace to inform the Queen of the dissolution of parliament as a respected economic think tank challenged his claim that a Labour victory would result in tax rises of more than £3,000 (€4,100) for every working family.

Cameron made the claim outside 10 Downing St as he issued a warning that the May 7 poll offered voters a “stark choice” between him and Ed Miliband as prime minister, and claimed that a Labour win would deliver “economic chaos”.

The £3,000 claim was dismissed by Labour as a “made-up figure”, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) later released an analysis which found that the party had not said “anything to suggest that this is what they are planning”.

Meanwhile, Labour ran into difficulties after a senior business figure objected to the use of his quote in a party advert in the Financial Times, which warned of the risk that Miliband believes would be posed to British business by the referendum on the UK’s EU membership promised by Cameron if the Tories win.

Siemens UK CEO Jürgen Maier was quoted as saying that the prospect of a referendum was “profoundly worrying for business leaders”, but later said he had not wanted his comments “attributed specifically to any particular party”, as his company was apolitical. Miliband said Labour was simply quoting public statements by business figures.

With their commitment to balancing the overall budget by 2017/18 and going on to run a surplus, Conservatives would require “substantially bigger spending cuts or tax increases than Labour”, said the IFS analysis.

“There is little value in bandying around numbers which suggest either party would increase taxes by an average of £3,000 for each working household.”

Deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who followed Cameron to the palace as president of the Privy Council predicted another hung parliament, saying: “It’s my view that the era of single-party government is over in British politics.”

An opinion poll gave the Tories a four-point lead over Labour — their biggest advantage since September 2010 — overturning a similar lead for Labour in a survey released over the weekend.