Chris Leslie MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responding to today’s announcement on tax from the Liberal Democrats, said:

“You can’t trust Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. They broke their promise not to raise VAT on families while backing the Tories in giving millionaires a huge tax cut.

"And they signed off risky and extreme Tory plans in the Autumn Statement to take public spending as a share of national income back to 1930s levels.

"Only Labour has a tough but balanced plan to get the deficit down fairly. We will make sensible spending cuts in non-protected areas, but we will also reverse this government’s £3 billion tax cut for the top one per cent of earners. And most of all, Labour’s economic plan will ensure we earn our way to rising living standards for all, not just a few.”