The idea won’t please those on the right or the left, but Labour must break the taboo and argue for higher tax
Jeremy Hunt talks about having to make decisions of “eye-watering difficulty”. The assumption is that he is talking of yet more cuts to our beleaguered public sector, but I have another suggestion. Why not put 2p on the basic rate of income tax?
Taking it up to 22% would raise about £10bn a year and thus, while it may not be the entire solution to our current difficulties, it would greatly relieve the pressure for cuts to essential services, some of which are already in a dire state.
Chris Mullin was Labour MP for Sunderland South from 1987 to 2010 and a minister in the Blair government
