Waiting for Dave

Waiting for David Cameron’s speech, which is going to be a great end to a great conference. General buzz here amongst those who were at Labour’s Conference last week is that contrast has been striking: their Conference was all very hollow, lots of election speculation covering up the lack of no real substance; while ours has been full of new, exciting ideas. The Party has been really united and determined. We are up for the fight!

On my brief there’s a story that is quite interesting – which the Mail and Guardian covered this morning. It concerns Labour’s misleading use of Treasury figures to attack our tax proposals. Yesterday lunchtime I wrote to the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury as follows: 

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On 30th April 2007, the then Economic Secretary, Ed Balls MP told the House of Commons, "Information is not held on overseas income and gains that do not give rise to a tax liability in the UK."

As the then Paymaster General, Dawn Primarolo MP told the House on 8th March 2007, this is because non-doms are not required to disclose this information: "In general, individuals do not have to inform HMRC of their foreign income or gains unless this is relevant to their UK tax liability."

Last night, the Labour Party distributed a press release which stated: "The Treasury's initial estimate, on best information available, is that just 15,000 current non-domicile residents have foreign income in excess of £62,000."

I am writing to ask you to explain why it is the case that information which the Treasury refused to give to Parliament appears to have been given to the Labour Party. Or, will you confirm that the statement made to Parliament this Spring remains the case.

As I am sure you agree, it is essential that the principle of civil service impartiality is not jeopardised, particularly during this period of speculation about a forthcoming general election.  George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor and Tory election co-ordinator, will be contributing to Coffee House throughout conference. To read his previous entries click here, here and here.