Osborne to signal tax rises in Tory counter attack

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, will today signal tax rises under a Conservative government in a counter-attack against a ‘tax con’ short-term cut by Gordon Brown’s government.

The Tories are concerned the prime minister is using the recession to prepare a toxic financial legacy for an incoming David Cameron premiership after a June 2010 election, the Financial Times reports.

Osborne is expected to stage a counter-attack in an effort to redefine the political dividing lines over the economy in ways that put the onus on Labour to account for the future state of the public finances.

In a speech to the London School of Economics, the shadow chancellor will warn that the choice of ‘borrowing without limit’ which Brown ‘appears to be making’ would hit taxpayers in the medium term.

Further reading:

Read the Financial Times story