Chancellor Gordon Brown today side-stepped a Tory challenge over reports that he hoped to scrap a mortgage tax perk worth on average £240 a year.
Brown, reportedly, is urging the PM to agree to the abolition of mortgage interest relief – MIRAS – in the next Budget – which will be on Tuesday, March 9.
Raising the issue at Commons question time, Nick Gibb, for the Tories, said there were “widespread rumours” that the government would scrap MIRAS to fund higher social security spending
He protested: “This will cost the average mortgage holder £240 a year in extra taxes.
“Isnt this yet another example of the creeping and stealth taxes, or will you reassure homeowners across the country that you have no such plans?”
But the Chancellor hit back on the tax benefit, which reduces borrowing on the first £30,000 of mortgages and which was cut by the previous Tory Government.
Brown said: “First of all, the Shadow Chancellor, Francis Maude, is on record proposing the abolition of mortgage tax relief.
“Secondly, social security spending rose by 4% a year under the last government to pay for unemployment, and it is rising by less than 2% a year in the next three years under this government.
He added that Labour is investing in proper services for the elderly and for children while the Tories wasted money paying the bills of unemployment.
EGi News (Parliament) 28/01/99
Do you have a comment about this story? Send a note to the editor.
