LONDON: Former Labour cabinet minister Lord Mandelson has slammed the party for the “crude” and “short-termist” mansion tax scheme that Ed Miliband plans to implement if he wins the general election in May 2015.
Lord Mandelson he did not like the idea of “clobbering people” with the mansion tax scheme and that there were other ways to efficiently raise money for public services.
[The Liberal Democrat idea of adding new council tax bands] will take longer to introduce, that’s true, but it will be more effective and efficient,” said Mandelson on BBC Two’s Newsnight programme.
We don’t have an efficient way of taxing property in Britain. I don’t happen to think the mansion tax is the right policy response to that, I think it’s crude, and I think it’s short-termist.
“What we need is what I think the Liberal Democrats are proposing and that is the introduction of further bands that relate to different values of property within the council tax system. That’s what I would like to see.
