10P TAX DISASTER: LIB DEMS CALL ON MP TO APOLOGISE

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 8th Jun 2008

Liberal Democrats are calling on Islington South & Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry to apologise for her enthusiastic support for the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

When Gordon Brown removed the 10p tax band in his last budget as Chancellor, he doubled income tax for the lowest-paid workers, plunging thousands of Islington residents further into poverty. Yet Emily Thornberry applauded the change. In the 2007 Budget debate, Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth challenged Ms Thornberry, saying "Does the hon. Lady recognise that the Chancellor's abolition of the 10p tax band will mean that her constituent's tax bill will rise?" Ms Thornberry replied "I am proud to sit on the Government Back Benches when my Government do things like that."

But while Ms Thornberry is proud, anti-poverty campaigners have condemned the 10p tax change. Many low earners are not eligible for tax credits or find them too complicated to claim. Age Concern estimate that £4.6 billion in benefits go unclaimed by older people every year. The End Child Poverty campaign say that one in three children in the UK still live in poverty.

Liberal Democrat Bridget Fox, who came within 500 votes of beating Ms Thornberry at the last General Election, says;

"The gap between the richest and the poorest is wider than ever. Even with the £2.7 billion changes to allowances announced last month, at least a million low earners will still lose out. And that help is for one year only.

"Islington's poorest residents have been betrayed. Food and fuel prices are rising, and the Government's tax changes have made a bad situation worse. Tax credits are great if you get them, but they fail to help millions of low earners.

"Emily Thornberry should follow the example of other Labour MPs and apologise for her terrible error over the 10p tax rate."