Judging the manifestos

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has passed its judgement on the manifestos of the three main parties. They clearly show that the Liberal Democrats have gone further than any party in identifying the savings that will be needed to tackle the structural deficit. The Conservatives on the other hand have pledged to make the biggest cuts to spending since the Second World War without coming clean about where the axe will fall. The IFS also shows both Labour and the Conservatives are hiding behind vague efficiency savings to avoid coming clean about their proposals.

The Liberal Democrats welcome the IFS’s overall assessment that the Liberal Democrat plans to raise the personal allowance to £10,000 is progressive, adds up and gives people an incentive to work. This is in stark contrast to the assessment of Conservative tax plans, which the IFS have shown to be both regressive by rewarding the richest, as well as self contradictory. As the IFS have shown, the Conservatives would have to reverse half of their proposed £6bn National Insurance tax cut to meet their own targets on tax.

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