GORD'S £30BN TAX CUTS GIFT
GORDON Brown is to hand families a bumper Christmas tax bonus as part of a £30 billion package to save the British economy.
It will result in tax cuts that will be worth up to £1,000 for each family.
And the PM will pump billions more into new government programmes in a desperate bid to kick-start the faltering economy.
Most of the tax-cutting proposals will be introduced before Christmas. Others will follow after.
Mr Brown spoke of his plans while at a meeting of 20 world leaders in Washington arranged by President George Bush to draw up proposals to save the global economy.
The Premier said: "We want to have measures that could show results as quickly as is possible. We have already provided a £120 tax rebate for 22 million basic rate tax payers.
"The Chancellor will outline the action we are taking to help British families get through this difficult period." The PM is planning major tax cuts targeted at low-income families.
They are likely to include increases in tax credits for families on incomes up to £60,000, along with extra help for pensioners.
The government says the huge 1.5 per cent cut in interest rates is not enough on its own to steer Britain out of recession. So at the same time the PM will pour vast sums into new schools, hospitals, leisure centres and social housing.
Mr Brown is desperate to act before the recession hits its trough. Many of the details will be unveiled in the November 24 Pre-Budget Report.
But controversially he will fund the package by increasing government borrowing to around £679 billion.
Mr Brown had originally planned a tax-cutting package worth just £7 billion. But he is desperate to ramp that up massively because of the scale of the economic crisis.
The £30 billion programme of tax cuts and spending would be equivalent to two per cent of national income. There is an emerging consensus in other countries, particularly America, for a two per cent package.
And co-ordinated world action is vital. If Britain acted alone in cutting taxes about half of the extra cash would leak into higher imports-boosting foreign economies and not ours.
Major economists and institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England also back "fiscal stimulus" plans. But the PM faces a battle with his Chancellor Alistair Darling who is understood to be concerned at the scale of the plans.
Mr Brown is also under pressure from Shadow Chancellor George Osborne who yesterday claimed the plans could cause the collapse of the pound.
Mr Osborne said: "Sterling has devalued rapidly against the euro and the dollar.
"We are in danger, if the Government is not careful, of having a proper sterling collapse, a run on the pound."
But Mr Brown hit back: "We are taking the policy that is absolutely essential to take people through difficult times."
THE Tory lead over Labour is just five per cent as Mr Brown benefits from his handling of the financial crisis, a poll shows today. Tories are on 41 per cent, Labour 36 per cent.
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This article has 23 comments
when and how is the christmas bonus going to be paid its christmas
By patricia taylor. Posted December 18 2008 at 10:39 PM.
A gift? Surely there must be some mistake to call this a gift! This is our money taken out of our pockets by a wasteful government who will be increasing taxes in the future to pay for this gift! Labour are not accountable
By steve tea. Posted November 23 2008 at 2:25 PM.
A gift? Does this mean we will not have to pay it back with increased taxation? Labour have ruined the economy, they took over a surplus in 1997 now we have debt. Every year the government has overspent its budget. Personnel debt is at record £3.7 Trillion pound because Brown promised us no more "Boom or Bust". It is a disgrace.
By Steve Tea. Posted November 23 2008 at 12:22 PM.
why is it always about families? why should ordinary working people on low wages who get nothing from the govenment foot the bill for people who can't afford the kids they produce?
By buzz. Posted November 23 2008 at 12:15 AM.
good day sir or ma.i see somethings in your new in my friend abt 5 days ago is about peoples that claim refuge or asshlum secker in england and govt want to give about 600.000.000 peoples in united kimdom right to work and stay in united kimdom.please i want you to email me all the full detain plz from iskilu costa thanks you very mush staybless and godblees too hav a nice weekend too
By iskilu costa. Posted November 22 2008 at 11:31 AM.
Give gordon a break he is trying to to help the uk in what ever way he can. I would have gordon brown over the other gease monkeys any day. look at david ride his bike to work with a great big jag behind him what a joke.
By michael. Posted November 20 2008 at 11:16 AM.
Where is this former prudent Chancellor getting all the money from ? It certainly won’t be from his pension.
By Barry. Posted November 18 2008 at 9:10 AM.
to behonest il beleive it when i actually see the money. not much more to say on the matter.
By sheryl. Posted November 17 2008 at 1:15 PM.
brown has destroyed the uk.the longer in power the harder it is to get back to good health.why don,t he give us a vote on who rules.the pound is down maybe this is his way of the uk accepting the euro.i don,t think so the uk people not stupid
By geoff. Posted November 17 2008 at 12:38 AM.
Gordon Brown seems to be gearing up for a spring election with a massive bribe because he knows if he stayed to his end of term the economy will be in a massive mess. He is implementing the ecconomics of the lunatic assylum. I am getting my hands on every bit of cash I can in the next two years and bailing out to America. No chavs, no career benefit scroungers. I am sick of sky high,tolls,taxes and fines culture of New Labour on ordinary working people. I was brought up a Labour man, but I'm outa here. Brown wants the credit for calling the fire brigade when he set the house on fire in the first place. It just looks like he is going to fool the electorate again. I just cannot cope with another term, of lies, sleaze, self interest and more bloody wars.
By Ian Newton. Posted November 16 2008 at 4:47 PM.
Gordon Brown seems to be gearing up for a spring election with a massive bribe because he knows if he stayed to his end of term the economy will be in a massive mess. He is implementing the ecconomics of the lunatic assylum. I am getting my hands on every bit of cash I can in the next two years and bailing out to America. No chavs, no career benefit scroungers. I am sick of sky high,tolls,taxes and fines culture of New Labour on ordinary working people. I was brought up a Labour man, but I'm outa here. Brown wants the credit for calling the fire brigade when he set the house on fire in the first place. It just looks like he is going to fool the electorate again. I just cannot cope with another term, of lies, sleaze, self interest and more bloody wars.
By Ian Newton. Posted November 16 2008 at 4:46 PM.
Im getting sick of this stupid country. Really what has it come to??
There's not much point in working nowadays - you get screwed left right and centre and we cant do jack about it!...just look at the price of food, petrol, energy and all those types of necessities. Get it sorted you muppets!
The government is quite clearly incompitent regardless of which party is in charge. Bunch of gits.
By nel. Posted November 16 2008 at 12:01 PM.
BROWN WILL JUMP ON ANY BAND WAGON GOING TO LOOK GOOD IN THE POLLS JUST DO US ALL A FAVOUR GORDON & CALL AN ELECTION NOW AFTER ALL NO BODY VOTED YOU IN .
By Trevor Jones. Posted November 16 2008 at 12:05 PM.
The British people fell for labours promises last time. If they swallow the latest guff Brown is giving them and vote labour in again they will deserve the unmitigated disaster that will follow.
By Simon Marshland. Posted November 16 2008 at 11:12 AM.
More tax on those of us who have worked hard, don't claim any benefit and have to support all those who fritter their money away. Where is the help for us, we will have to pay dearly later. It just makes you think "Why save for my future? The best idea is to Party, Party, Party like everyone else and the next generation can foot the bill" Get real Mr Brown, how come so many in the labour party are Scots... you do nothing to help the English. Why are we paying for our prescriptions for example? If you want to help us start by removing the charges, that would help those of us who have to fork out. Stop immigration, and ensure the jobs are given to those that have lived in the UK for more than 5 years, the young ,school leavers etc. Degrees don;t get jobs... what happened to apprenticeships?
By liza. Posted November 16 2008 at 11:01 AM.
Loser would sell his soul to the devil so desperate is he to keep himself and his wretched useless administration in power.
Yet even though everyone should know that he is the worst PM ever and that in large part it is all his past incompetence and mistakes that has got all into this mess.
Yet there are STILL millions of dumbarses who will be taken in by all this fake posturing as the world's saviour and there may be enough of them who will be dim enough to want to vote him again.
Then he will be able to finish his great personal mission - to ruin irredemably this country forever.
By roger. Posted November 16 2008 at 10:39 AM.
Brown is so conceited, he did not see it coming, he is splashing around like a non swimmer out of his depth.
In order to grab some credibility, he wants the world to do his bidding.
Bye bye world.
By DonB. Posted November 16 2008 at 10:31 AM.
to be followed by a General Election?
By cww. Posted November 16 2008 at 10:26 AM.
I am relieved to see from other comments that people are, like me, wondering where ever Brown thinks this money is going to come from. A generation of debt for the whole country is clearly the answer. He will do anything to try to save his reputation and hang the consequences for the rest of us. In the latest poll 36% support Labour - at least that means that 64% retain some common sense!
By David Williams. Posted November 16 2008 at 9:54 AM.
Unless you have children or are old you seem invisible to this government. Unless it comes to paying for them that is!!!
By Brokenfather. Posted November 16 2008 at 9:26 AM.
Brown is playing high stake politics with a blindfold on. The next step for the pound will be its conversion to the Euro which will amount to total devaluation and further poverty in many homes.
By Robert El-Cid.. Posted November 16 2008 at 8:43 AM.
How can a man who put on to the British people 60 plus TAXES then say we are all going to get a refund?What about the pensioners who won't qualify for his TAX allowance,how is he going to give them?This man & his Goons are a disgrace.They have no shame!!!
Roy. Spain
By ROY KENNEY. Posted November 16 2008 at 8:37 AM.
The pound has already fallen 25% against the dollar. How much further does it have to go to qualify as a collapse? Brown's drunken sailor spending antics will make things worse. It's like someone maxing out credit card after credit card to go out binge drinking then handing the debt on to their children. Why he is being lauded (over here anyway) as some kind of saviour for this behaviour is a mystery to me. He'd do better to sack all the £100k plus a year bureaucrats like those in Haringey, the quangoes, the BBC and every other "public service" arena and use that money for tax cuts instead of borrowing ever more.
Even if he sacked 2 million jobsworths on 25k and paid them 10k on the dole he'd save 30 billion and make life better for the rest of us by stopping them interfering in our lives, fining us and generally persecuting us.
By Simon. Posted November 16 2008 at 3:39 AM.