We are now less than a month away from the British general election, and as the parties begin building their manifestos*, both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader are perfect the art of talking a lot with saying anything.
The PM was first, after being pressed on whether or not she would raise the health insurance tax (known as national insurance contribution). Her response, as chronicled by the Guardian…
Asked specifically if she would match Labour, which has promised not to raise employee NICs, she said that it was not her intention to put up tax but that she would not make commitments she could not be sure of keeping. She said: “It is not our intention to increase the level of tax but I’m not going to make any tax commitments that we are not absolutely sure we can keep. But our instinct is to reduce taxes on working families.” She said the Conservatives always had been and always would be a low tax party. In contrast, she claimed that in the past Jeremy Corbyn talked about raising the basic rate of tax to 25p in the pound.
So…”instinct”, “intention”, and a little misdirection, but clearly May left open a hike in the NIC (h/t to the Jaded JD for that one).
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn was asked by the BBC if, as Prime Minister, he would lead the UK out of the European Union in the absence of a trade deal. He never answered (Reuters), leaving himself wide open to get hit from traffic in both directions. The Tories and the Lib Dems were more than happy to do so (BBC).
Bottom line: May wants the freedom to raise revenue, and Corbyn is desperate for votes on either side of the EU referendum divide. Given how a similar game plan ruined Labour in Scotland, I’m thinking Corbyn did himself more damage.
* – Manifestos are the equivalent of our party platforms, with one major difference: the unelected House of Lords is not allowed to block any provision in a governing party’s manifesto (although they can delay it for a year). Thus, these documents have more power, receive a lot more scrutiny, and are usually put together with greater care.