Clegg’s tax cut
Yet, while the Deputy Prime Minister’s call is a tacit admission that household budgets have reached breaking point, the question of finance remains unanswered. The Sheffield Hallam MP argues that the wealthy should foot the bill while many of his Conservative coalition partners contend that lowering the 50p tax rate for high-earners is the best way of creating jobs and prosperity.
Mr Clegg may also come to regret the timing of his speech. For, if Chancellor George Osborne concludes in the Budget that tax cuts are out of the equation, and the fate of the eurozone still remains the great unknown, the Lib Dem leader will be portrayed as a man with little influence. His challenge now is to convince the Treasury that tax cuts are in the economic interest, more so than the political.