Tories deny VAT rate hike plans

The shadow health secretary has moved to reassure businesses and consumers that the Conservative Party has no intention of implementing a VAT rate hike should it get into power at the next election.

Speculation that the opposition could move to push the rate of VAT up to 20 per cent grew over the weekend as shadow foreign secretary William Hague refused to rule out such a development.

However, Andrew Lansley has now insisted that the Tories have ’absolutely no plans’ of raising the rate, arguing that pushing up taxes could actually serve to stifle the UK economy.

’As far as I am aware we have absolutely no such plan and I know there have been no such senior level discussions,’ he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme.

’We have been very clear about the need for public spending to be controlled and the priorities that we will have within public spending, including for the NHS.’

This comes soon after the AA warned that the upcoming return to the former rate of VAT of 17.5 per cent, as well as a planned hike in the rate of fuel duty, will hit British motorists hard.



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