Cameron Finally Promises to Not Raise VAT

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has surprisingly announced to assure that he will note raise Value Added Tax in case his party wins the election. Although the move was welcomed by his own party members, it did catch the Labour opposition by surprise. During the last prime minister’s questions of this parliament, Mr Cameron informed the MPs that a future Conservative government would not increase VAT in the next parliament as a way of reducing the deficit.

Since earlier Cameron had refused to rule out increasing VAT, the Labour party accused his party of planning a secret VAT “bombshell”. However when inquired again on Wednesday if his party would rule out increasing VAT, Mr Cameron mentioned that “a straight question deserves a straight answer from me: yes.” Quite noticeably, during the 2010 election, Mr Cameron had said he had “no plans” to increase VAT but then did so soon after he came to power and so the prime minister argued there was “no need” to do so again after May.

The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, mentioned just this week that Labour would not raise the tax, unveiling a poster warning that said “don’t let the Tories hit you with this,” whereas the chancellor, George Osborne, declined five times to rule out a rise when questioned on Tuesday. A senior Conservative official revealed that the party leadership decided to match the Labour promise after Mr Balls’ announcement, but wanted to wait until the final PMQs of this parliament to do so. The official said it was always “inconceivable” that the party would increase VAT after the election.