UK NEWS

BROWN’S BID TO BUY OFF THE 10P TAX RATE REBELS

SCORN: Conservative George Osbourne

Tuesday April 22,2008

By Macer Hall Political Editor

GORDON Brown made a grovelling plea to Labour rebels last night not to wreck his tax raid on the low-paid.

In a desperate attempt to rebuild his crumbling authority, he tried to defend his decision to scrap the 10p income tax rate at a meeting of sceptical Labour MPs.

During a tense hour-long meeting he tried to buy off a revolt by promising to fine-tune the tax system for low-paid workers this autumn.

But leading rebels insisted later that they were left “unconvinced”.

In the meeting – hastily arranged by Downing Street aides yesterday afternoon – Mr Brown told MPs: “I know how difficult it is out there, with rising food prices and fuel prices.

“People want to know that we get it, that we understand their anxieties.

Hinting at major concessions, he said: “We will listen to what people are saying.”

But acknowledging the serious threat to his Government’s survival, he said: “We can’t have the Budget defeated. There is a responsibility to listen, hear and understand what has been said – but there is also a responsibility on us to unite.”

Deputy leader Harriet Harman had been due to address the Parliamentary Labour Party gathering, but Mr Brown nudged her aside.

Up to 70 MPs are set to rebel against the Budget tax change, which increases income tax for people on less than £18,000 a year, in a Commons vote next week. Asked if he was swayed by Mr Brown’s pleas yesterday, former welfare minister Frank Field said: “No.”

He is tabling an amendment to the Government’s Finance Bill to overhaul the tax change. If enough Labour rebels join the Tories and Lib Dems in backing him, Mr Brown would be humiliatingly defeated.

Earlier, during tetchy Commons exchanges, Treasury Chief Secretary Yvette Cooper tried to placate the rebels by offering minor concessions.

A Treasury inquiry to find ways of helping low-paid families with children was being expanded to include childless households, she said.

But she angered critics by repeatedly refusing to admit that low-paid workers were being made worse off.

In a devastating attack, former Tory leader Michael Howard said it was tragic that Mr Brown, who had come into politics to help the poor, should end up betraying them.

The Shadow Chancellor George Osborne was equally scornful. He said: “Judging by Yvette Cooper’s mauling by Labour backbenchers, attempts to buy off the revolt failed.

“We now have a Government fighting itself when it should be fighting for the country.”

Earlier, at the Scottish Trades Union Congress, Mr Brown tried to mimic Tory leader David Cameron’s tactic of giving a speech without notes. Witnesses said he prowled the platform in a way that could only be described as “menacing”.