David Cameron swears to lower taxes if elected
UK prime minister David Cameron has spoken out on taxing the population in statements released today ahead of his visit to the North-west.
Trying to set himself apart from Labour leader Ed Miliband he asserted that "every single pound of public money started as private earning".
"With every spending commitment we must be mindful of who picks up the bill. It's easy for governments to trumpet what they spend money on and claim a moral victory.
"But on the other side of the coin are those who work hard, many on low incomes, who would desperately like to spend more money on their family.
"The Government has a moral duty to think of these people in any decisions made on tax and spending."
At a party conference earlier in the year Cameron asserted that by 2020 he would raise the earnings threshold for paying income tax up to £12,500.
He added on Thursday that this will mean taxpayers save £3,800 less on tax over the next five years.
Labour on the other hand has plans to push the top rate of tax on earnings over £150,000 a year up from 45 to 50p.
Eyeing a Labour government, the shadow skills minister Liam Byrne told Total Politics: "Look, there are some taxes that are going to have to go up."
Labour has also deliberated on a "mansion tax" that would cost the rich more than £2m per property "and there are Labour donors among them", frontbencher Liam Byrne told Total Politics.
Byrne also argued that Labour did not mis-handle the economy prior to the coalition stepping in. He noted: “I left a budget that would have halved the deficit over four years (whereas) this government has only knocked a third off the deficit, meaning they have put our national debt up by 46 per cent to £1.4 trillion.”