1999 Press Release – Conservative Party – Labour’s Budget Deception

Below is the text of a press release which was issued by The Conservative Party on 9 March 1999 and was entitled “Labour’s Budget Deception”.

Iain Duncan Smith:

“Gordon Brown deliberately deceived the public by claiming that the Married Couple’s Allowance is paid to lone parents and unmarried parents. This is simply not true – it is the Additional Personal Allowance which is available to these groups, but it’s being abolished as well.

“If the Chancellor wanted to help married couples he could simply have abolished APA – he did not. The new Children’s Tax Credit is not aimed at married couples and will do nothing to encourage marriage. He said that the saving from abolishing the MCA would be transferred to the Children’s Tax Credit, but he didn’t say that the credit would be delayed for another year. [Financial Statement and Budget Report p112 col.17&18].

“By not introducing the new tax credits until 2001, the Chancellor has hit married couples with tax hikes of £1.6 billion. He has once again said one thing but done another.

“This budget is yet another extension of means testing. The increases in the Minimum Pension Guarantee and the Working Families Tax Credit minimum income guarantee added to the taper on the new Children’s tax credit will increase dependency and will penalise those with savings.

“This is a continuation of the attack on those who work hard and save, in favour of those who do not. They have moved from attacking ‘something for nothing’, to creating a ‘nothing for something’ society.

“Families, young and old, will now be hit by tax hikes and means tests by a Chancellor who deceived his way through the Budget.”

ENDS