Ed Miliband announces his support for mansion tax

Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has announced that his party will back new plans to tax homes worth over £2m.

Mr Miliband has stated, “a one nation Labour government led by me will put a fairer tax system at the heart of his new priorities”. He said that as a party they would reintroduce the 10p tax rate, which was abolished by the former Labour leader and Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in 2007, continuing, “we would put right a mistake made by Gordon Brown and the last Labour government”. Miliband’s promise is not only to restore the tax band, but is also to restore the relationship between Labour and the electoral base that vote for Labour. The reintroduction of the 10p rate will benefit 25 million basic-rate tax payers by saving them approximately £100. However, the tax band has yet to be confirmed.

The mansion tax policy was first advocated by Liberal Democrat, Vince Cable, who is the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Vince Cable stated, “I am glad Mr Miliband has adopted it. I haven’t been able to persuade my Conservative colleagues”.

The Prime Minister David Cameron claims to not be worried about Labour’s policy. There has been a lot of talk over whether it is wise for Mr Miliband to bring to attention the bad decisions formed by Gordon Brown in 2007. On one hand it has been considered a positive sign that Miliband owns up to the mistakes made in Labours past, however, on the other hand it reminds the public why they did not vote for them in the last election. Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, said, “Governments make mistakes. But when they do it is always better to own up and put them right. The last Labour government did many good things. But we got things wrong too.”

Labour has now turned to the Liberal Democrats to support this reintroduction of a 10p rate in the Commons, which would go against the Conservatives proposals. Miliband states this change will help put “Labour where it should have always been, on the side of the working class people”