Ed Miliband defends his shadow chancellor
Labour leader Ed Miliband has defended shadow chancellor Alan Johnson after he appeared not to know the rate of National Insurance paid by employers.
On Sunday, Mr Johnson said the rate stood at 20% – it is in fact 12.8%.
At his monthly press conference the Labour leader said he would accept Mr Johnson’s judgement over Chancellor George Osborne’s “any day of the week”.
Mr Miliband also called for higher taxes on bank bonuses – but the government played down the idea.
On Sky News on Sunday Mr Johnson said the “secondary class one-rate [National Insurance contributions] for employers” would have gone up 1% to 21% had Labour won the general election.
But he was later reminded that the current rate was 12.8%.
Asked at the press conference whether this threw into question the ability and judgement of the shadow chancellor, Mr Miliband said: “Alan clearly knows about these things.”
He added: “It’s the big things that matter in politics. The things that matter are your instincts and why we stand up for your judgements.
“I take his judgements over George Osborne’s any day.”
Mr Miliband said: “We are seeing from this government a casual attitude to the rise in living costs…
“If David Cameron is really concerned about jobs, he should do more to address a lost generation of young people.”
During the event in central London, also attended by Mr Johnson, Mr Miliband also urged the coalition government to tax bank bonuses more heavily.
He added that Labour’s one-off measure before it lost power had raised £3.5bn and that its Conservative-Liberal Democrat replacement levy would make £1.25bn. Mr Miliband described this as an effective “tax cut”.
However, the prime minister’s spokesman has played down the prospect of another tax on bank bonuses, saying the levy was intended to raise £2.5bn a year and was permanent.
He pointed out that Labour’s bank bonus tax was a “one-off” and repeating that kind of measure tended to generate payment avoidance.
At his press conference, Mr Miliband leader also defended his party’s financial record in government, saying it had been “within acceptable limits”, as a proportion of national income, before the global economic crisis hit.
He repeated his criticism of the coalition that it was cutting “too far, too fast”, which could damage economic growth.
Mr Miliband added that he and Mr Johnson agreed that the 50p income tax rate for top earners “should stay for this parliament and it is very unlikely that our priority after the next general election would be to cut the 50p tax rate”.
He said: “There are lots of other priorities that will take precedence.”
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