Facts Evasion

The Prime Minister has changed his line. In his conference speech last month he said:

The rich will pay a greater share of tax in every year of this Parliament than in any one of the 13 years under Labour.

(I examined the claim here and here.) At Prime Minister’s Questions today he said:

The richest in our country will actually be paying more in income tax in every year of this Government than in any year of that Government.

(Emphasis added.) In other words, meaningless guff. It is not income tax that matters, but the share of the total tax burden that is borne by the rich.

Meanwhile, though, congratulations to Tom Harris for the best question of the day:

Last week, the Prime Minister told me and the House that the Government were investing an extra £900 million to combat tax avoidance. In fact, as Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will confirm, no such investment is taking place, and HMRC is facing a 15% cut in its budget. So is the Prime Minister guilty of fact avoidance or fact evasion?

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  Ah, how we miss Mr Harris’s splendid blog. The First Lord of the Treasury’s answer to this fine question was also pretty evasive. What a lot of scallywags today’s high-ranking politicians, especially the ex-PR types, are to be sure…

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