Party Lines: January 4th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Today’s news was all about the VAT hike, and Alan Johnson was all over the media this morning as shoppers faced the increase for the first time. Speaking on Radio 5, Johnson engaged in a spot of populist banker bashing:

“People will scratch their heads and think ‘Why are we taking less from the banks who are actually at the heart of the global financial crisis than we are from child benefit, than we are from students?’. We’d have taken more money from the banks as well.”

“The point about this is that 2011 has to be about jobs and growth, getting momentum and the economy moving. This is going to is going to do nothing for that. And it’s actually going to hit the poor the hardest.”

On BBC News later Johnson praised Ed Miliband’s “decency and honesty”:

“What we are seeing is that streak of absolute decency and honesty, and the decision to not go for the political pyrotechnics that you would think a new leader would be doing. This is time for steady as you go, for a cautious and careful approach to the country’s enormous problems. Not least of all the deficit, we need to get the deficit down, it’s the speed and severity of this governments approach that we disagree with”.

Speaking this afternoon, Ed Miliband called for George Osborne to apologise for misleading the public over VAT:

“Everybody knows that it’s poor and middle income families that will be hit hardest. He should come out and apologise for misleading the British people.”

“George Osborne this morning claimed that VAT was both a progressive tax and better for the poor but all the evidence and what David Cameron said before the election said the opposite.”

“That’s why he should come out and say that he got it wrong this morning.”