Minister: Tax cuts could equal tax rises

Date: 12th November 2008

A government minister has admitted that any taxation cuts now could cost the taxpayer more in the long-run.

Speaking to the BBC, the employment minister Tony McNulty stressed that any strategy to get the UK's economy back into "equilibrium" could eventually require higher taxation.

His words come on the back of the prime minister Gordon Brown recently suggesting to GMTV that he could lower taxation.

When asked if taxation would eventually increase again, Mr McNulty told the BBC: "We will see. It may well be that the economy gets out of this quicker … otherwise tax receipts shoot up.

"If there is a balance it may need to be found by taxation but that's a moot point at this stage."

Yesterday (November 11th), the Tory leader David Cameron revealed to GMTV in an interview that he would give a taxation break of £2,500 to every business that hired an employee from the jobless register.