Campbell faces taxing conference
Menzies Campbell has attacked Gordon Brown’s social policies as he looks to divert attention from pressures his leadership faces this week in Brighton.
As the Liberal Democrat autumn conference gets underway today, Sir Menzies accused the chancellor of having “wrecked people’s lives” with his tax credits policy.
In an interview with the Guardian, the Lib Dem leader insisted there would be very little difference between a Labour government headed by Tony Blair and one led by Mr Brown.
“Brown supporters have obviously been briefing to suggest he might take different positions from Blair, but it’s what he does when he’s in office which counts,” he said.
“There’s no reason to suggest a Prime Minister Brown would depart from the centralisation and authoritarianism which we have seen.”
The attacks comes as the Liberal Democrat leader faces his first autumn conference in charge of Britain’s third party.
He faces pressure on two fronts. Firstly, Charles Kennedy is due to make his outgoing leader speech on Tuesday. It could be damaging for Sir Menzies if activists respond better to Mr Kennedy’s speech than his own.
Secondly, also on Tuesday, backbencher Evan Harris is due to spearhead an attack on Sir Menzies’ green taxation policies.
The party is split between those who support Mr Kennedy’s 50p top tax rate and those who prefer raising funds by taxing environmentally damaging practices, like air travel.
“It’s. the most progressive way, the fairest way, to take poor people out of taxes altogether,” Mr Harris told the BBC earlier this week of the Liberal Democrats’ former 50p taxation policy.
Lib Dem president Simon Hughes, who has twice stood for the party leadership, has previously noted that Sir Menzies is likely to be judged by how he performs in the autumn conference.
