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Darling Taxes Rich In Pre-Election Budget The Chancellor has taken from the rich to give to the poorer in what he hopes will be an election-winning Budget./nDarling Taxes Rich In Pre-Election Budget/n9:06pm UK, Wednesday March 24, 2010/nMiranda Richardson, Sky News Online The Chancellor has taken from the rich to give to the poorer in what he hopes will be an election-winning Budget./nAlistair Darling scrapped stamp duty on properties under £250,000 for first time buyers, but raised it to five per cent on homes worth over £1m./nMr Darling said the stamp duty holiday - which will last for two years from midnight tonight - meant nine out of 10 first time buyers would not have to pay the tax./nThe Tories accused the Chancellor of stealing the idea - the most eye-catching announcement in the Budget - from George Osborne's 2007 Conservative Party conference speech./nDavid Cameron told MPs: "The only new ideas in British politics are coming from this side of the house."/nThe Tories have said, however, they will not reverse the rise, if they are elected. Mr Darling used this last Budget before the election to set out the differences between Labour and the Conservatives on the economy./nFollowing Tory policies over the past two years would have left Britain in recession, he said, and adopting their approach now would "suffocate" recovery in the future./nThere was "nothing pre-ordained" about continued recovery, he warned./nImmediate cuts to public spending, advocated by the Tories, would be "both wrong and dangerous" and could "derail the recovery... taking a huge risk with people's jobs, incomes and our future," he said./nMr Darling's claims were derided by Mr Cameron, who said: "Labour have made a complete mess of the British economy./n"Like every Labour government before them, they have run out of money and they are leaving it to the next Conservative government to clean up the mess."/nThe biggest risk to recovery was five more years of a Labour Government, said Mr Cameron./nShadow chancellor George Osborne described it as a "totally empty budget"./nMeanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the Budget was "not the preface to a new Government but a footnote to 13 years of failure" and accused both Labour and the Tories of lacking the courage to be honest about the cuts needed./nOne of the noisiest moments of the afternoon came when the Chancellor revealed that a tax transparency agreement with Belize - former base of Tory donor Lord Ashcroft - would be signed within the next few days./nHe pointed out that this was a lot quicker than the 10 years it took Mr Cameron to learn of the non-dom peer's tax status/nJon Craig, Boulton & Co.

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http://www.kideso.co.uk/kvp/video/1176/NEWS-UK-Budget-24-March-2010


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