VOTERS LEFT IN THE DARK OVER COSTS OF COMMITMENTS-All parties are lacking details over funding of pledges in their manifestoes
Voters have been left in the dark over how the major parties will be able to fund their spending commitments, a respected think tank has said, offering just “thin gruel”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) took aim at what it has long described as a “conspiracy of silence” from both the Conservatives and Labour on how they could meet the challenges they identify, such as reducing NHS waiting lists.
Launching its report on the crucial documents, IFS director Paul Johnson warned that spending on many public services would likely need to be cut over the next parliament unless government debt was to rise or taxes increased further.
He rubbished claims that manifestos were fully costed.
Mr Johnson pointed to pressure from a 60-year high in government debt levels at a time of a near-record tax burden.
Much of the blame for this was a £50bn a year increase in debt interest spending relative to forecasts, he explained, and a growing welfare budget in the wake of the COVID pandemic and cost of living crisis that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Johnson asserted that both are “Consistent with their conspiracy of silence, both are keeping entirely silent about their commitment to a £10bn a year tax rise through a further three years of freezes to personal tax allowances and thresholds.
“Both have tied their hands on income tax, NICs (national insurance contributions), VAT and corporation tax. The Conservatives have a long list of other tax rises, and reforms, that they wouldn’t do. AND Labour have ruled out more tax options since the publication of the manifestos.
“Taken at face value, Labour’s promise of no tax increases on working people” rules out essentially all tax rises. There is no tax paid exclusively by those who don’t work. So who knows what this pledge is really supposed to mean,” he concluded.
