Party Lines: January 5th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Alan Johnson criticised the Prime Minister today, saying he sounds “foolish” defending the VAT rise:

“David Cameron has tried to cover for his Chancellor and ended up sounding foolish.”

“VAT is clearly a regressive tax. The Prime Minister should come clean, stop playing games and admit VAT will hit the poor hardest.”

Labour’s candidate in Oldham East Debbie Abrahams said that the main issue on the doorstep was “broken promises”:

“The main thing that’s coming up from constituents that I’m talking to on the doorsteps is about the broken promises, they’re absolutely outraged in terms of the cuts in police when they said they were actually going to increase them, the increase yesterday in VAT that’s really hitting people’s purses, tuitions fees, so it’s about the issues that are coming up.”

“I promise that I will be stand up for fairness and the cuts that are being introduced by this regressive, unfair government are going to be affecting the poorest in society, so VAT we know is a regressive tax. We know from independent financial analysis that it is going to be affecting the poorest in our society and affecting how they do and how their families do in the future.”

“I have a track record for standing up for fairness, for making sure that there will be a principled and strong representative for Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency in parliament… making sure that I represent all of the community, I think that’s also very important.”