Labour's bribe with borrowed money

Labour are using out a £2.7billion bribe through the tax system - breathlessly wanting it announced before the Crewe and Natwich bye-election.

Of course they aren't going to pay for it by raising taxes else where - this year. Nope its going to be borrowed so we all have to pay it back in the future.

So we are be bribed with expensive money Gordon has run up the national credit card to get.

And I thought the Rover money before the 2005 election was shameless, and expensive.

Can't help thinking £2.7 billion per Labour MP is a bit expensive ...

But the real fun will be for all the payroll administrators who have to deal with tax threasholds changing in a year where tax has already started to be collected ! Of course many of the poorest people will probably end up over paying and since HMRC usually only issues tax returns to those on +£100k/yr it could be a long time or never before they see that money. I wonder if all this will unravel in short order ? PAYE software will need updating - and may the lord have mercy on those poor souls who do their PAYE calcs manually. ( Of course virtually no Labour politicians will ever have gone near doing these sorts of things.)

Complicated, fiddling, with many people being told they've been given money that they don't receive - Just the way Gordon likes it ....

Update: Iain Dale wonders if this is the biggest bye-election bribe in history ? ( As does the Procrastinating Politicians blog ). Also it appears that Labour refused to give the opposition warning of the pre-6 OClock news announcement - to try to make sure its only what they say that gets reported. Of course they don't need to worry where the BBC is concerned as it thinks Vince Cable is the opposition. ( Apparently George Osborne made an good reply - drawn up whilst Alistair Darling was speaking ).

Labour - they're just shameless aren't they ? Still this might save Gordon Brown's skin - which dooms them to defeat in 2010, so there irony for everyone who wants it.

Conservative home is all over this as you might expect and are now worried that shameless Labour will just max out the country's debt (Fraser Nelson) - knowing they are going to lose, as they have in the past.

Further update: There's a good sketch piece in today's Independent (yes really) by Simon Carr (hat tip to Guido) - it contains the following interesting report from the debate that followed the Chancellors announcement:

Oliver Letwin suggested that a one-off tax rebate announced a week before a by-election was inconsistent with electoral law. Another Tory said it was the most shameless attempt to buy an election since the Humber Bridge. And Charles Walker, on a point of order, claimed that the compensation details were already in leaflets being distributed in Crewe.

Now that's interesting - is it illegal ? Should the civil service be involved in blatant political activity just before a bye-election.

Also the leaflets point suggest contempt of parliament by Alistair Darling.

But as they are shameless I don't suppose they care ...