Tax rich to help middle classes, says minister

Published on Sunday 17 August 2008 22:09

GORDON Brown is facing pressure to tax the rich to help cash-strapped middle-class families struggling to pay bills.

The demand came from Ivan Lewis, a health minister, who said the government needed to show it was in tune with "ordinary" families and had concern for the middle classes as well as the poorest in society.

The intervention of a minister will heap pressure on the Prime Minister and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, to appeal to aspirational voters, and could trigger more open dissent from the government ranks.

Mr Lewis wrote in a newspaper article yesterday that voters expected a Labour government to reward hard work by protecting their quality of life.

"Yes, protect those on the lowest incomes but also help the hard-working middle classes with large mortgage commitments who are neither rich nor poor; the people who work long hours for their two holidays a year, leisure club membership, meals out with family and friends and ability to buy their children nice things."

Ministers should be prepared to target help at the struggling middle classes as well as the lower paid, he said. "Our duty is to make sure we understand what it is like to cope with rising food, fuel and utility bills."