Vince Cable: “Tories don’t like it but I want a new mansion tax”

Business secretary Vince Cable has defied chancellor George Osborne by issuing a strident call for a mansion tax, insisting “this idea is very popular”.

Cable told supporters, in an email sent out as part of the LibDems’ FairerTax campaigning group, that he still wanted a mansion tax of 1% of the value for a property worth more than £2 million.

“There is plenty of opposition from top investment bankers who would have to pay more tax. And the Tories don’t like it either; it will hit some of their friends. Polls show that this idea is very popular. The public want fairer taxes, as we do” he wrote.

This comes after chancellor George Osborne explicitly ruled out a mansion tax in a speech at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham.

He told members that:

“‘Nor am I going to introduce a new tax on people’s homes. It would be sold as a Mansion Tax. But once the tax inspector had his foot in the door you’d soon find most homes in the country labelled a ‘mansion’. Homes people have worked hard to afford and already paid taxes on. It’s not a Mansion Tax, it’s a Homes Tax and this party of home ownership will have no truck with it.”