GEORGE OSBORNE repeatedly failed to rule out further tax breaks for millionaires yesterday under a future Tory government.

Labour accused the Chancellor of failing to “come clean” over his future tax plans, pointing out that those earning seven-figure sums have already saved at least £85,000 in the two years since the top-rate tax was cut to 45p.

A further reduction to 40p would mean £1 million earners having another £340,000 shaved off their bill over the course of a parliament, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said.

But Mr Osborne repeatedly avoided setting future Tory policy in stone, simply saying that cutting the top rate of income tax was not “one of our priorities.”

Speaking on the Murnaghan show on Sky News the Chancellor said: “If that was our priority or our plan we would have made it part of our plan and made it one of our priorities.”

But Labour said Mr Osborne’s dodging spells more help for millionaires if the Tories win the general election.

Shadow chief Treasury secretary Chris Leslie said Mr Osborne had been “flushed out,” adding: “Their priority is always about helping the very richest in society.”

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: “While millions are paying more, millionaires are paying less.

“David Cameron and George Osborne have given the very highest earners a huge tax cut. The Tories ditched the idea that we are ‘all in this together’ and looked after their friends first.”

And Mr Osborne is getting a barrage of criticism from his own coalition partners too.

In one of his sharpest attacks yet against the Tory strategy, Nick Clegg described Mr Osborne as “a very dangerous man with a very dangerous plan” whose vision for public finances would result in economic “disaster.”

In an indication of a potential stumbling block in any post-election negotiation with the Tories, the Lib Dem leader vowed he would do “everything in my power” to stop Mr Osborne carrying out his plan.

He warned that Mr Osborne’s plans for balancing the books, which involve an extra £12 billion of welfare cuts and £13bn slashed from Whitehall budgets without any tax rises, were “socially and morally unacceptable.”

The strident comments come in an interview with Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell in May’s edition of British GQ published today.

by Our News Desk