Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government used its last budget today before a looming national election to take from the rich and give to the poor, raising accusations it is invoking a class war as it attempts to win over recession-weary voters, according to AP. With just weeks to go before the national poll, the ruling Labour Party said it was hiking taxes on the wealthy to pay for breaks given to lower income earners such as scrapping house purchase duties for first-time home buyers. As Labour wallows behind the main opposition Conservative Party in the opinion polls, Treasury chief Alistair Darling's budget statement was light on financial detail but heavy on political rhetoric. «This will be a budget to secure the recovery, tackle borrowing and invest in our industrial future,» Darling told lawmakers in the House of Commons. «It will continue targeted support for business and families where and when it is needed.» At the center of that promised support was a headline-grabbing pledge to drop so-called stamp duty on house purchases made by first-time buyers on properties costing up to 250,000 pounds ($370,000). That measure will be funded by a doubling in the stamp duty to 5 percent on all properties costing over 1 million pounds from the start of April. In other Robin Hood-like measures, Darling said an increase in income tax would not hit anyone earning less than 25,000 pounds a year, but there would be significant tax increases and reduced personal allowances on those earning more than 150,000 pounds a year. Darling attempted to downplay the moves, saying they were not made «out of dogma or ideology» but a determination to ensure the country's «overall tax regime remains competitive.» But commentators in class-conscious Britain were quick to jump on the implications: the right-wing Daily Mail newspaper blared: «Now it's a class war! Darling hammers the better off with tax rises» referring to «punishments» for the better off.
