Why Hammond was handed a hospital pass* on tax promises
U-turn Clegg’s advice to No11: dump the blame on Cameron
NO ONE knows better than Nick Clegg the reputational price attached to breaking a political promise: the former LibDem leader has been haunted by his U-turn over university tuition fees during the Coalition Government.
The former Deputy Prime Minister’s abandonment of his 2010 General Election pledge not to hike fees led to fury among students and contributed to the party’s nearwipeout at the 2015 election.
Now Mr Clegg has offered his advice to Philip Hammond as he battles the Budget backlash over National Insurance rises: blame it all on David Cameron. ‘The honest thing to do for Hammond, and knowing him it is what I suspect he would like to do, is to dump on his predecessors and say Osborne and Cameron were wrong,’ said the Sheffield Hallam MP, arguing the Chancellor was constrained by Mr Cameron and George Osborne’s Election manifesto ruling out tax rises.
‘In what normal world does a Government impose a fatwa in all circumstances on adjusting taxes in anticipation of economic events which you cannot anticipate? What he has ended up with, at great cost to him,, is a savingg that is minuscule in public expenditure terms,’ Mr Clegg told The Mail on Sunday.
His remarks come as the former Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, Vince Cable, said Mr Hammond had received a ‘hospital pass’ from the previous Conservative administration’s promise not to raise taxes.
Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, Mr Cable said: ‘The ultimate blame actually lies with the man who, in effect, threw the political rugby ball to them so recklessly – David Cameron who put the fateful pledge in the Conservative manifesto’.
AS THE former MP for Twickenham, I am a big fan of rugby, a sport in which there is one sure way to put your team in trouble and make yourself unpopular with your own side. It is called a hospital pass, and involves one player tossing the ball in a panic to a team-mate at the very moment they are about to be hit by a bone-crunching tackle. The team-mate has no way out and at best gets shaken up and bruised. They may also need help from the team nurse. At worst, they may be so badly injured they have to retire from the field of play altogether.
I was reminded of this as I watched a badly winded Philip Hammond and Theresa May struggle to cope with the predictable backlash to the Budget announcement that the selfemployed must pay higher National Insurance. It was the political equivalent of a hospital pass.
Now there is no sign Mr Hammond will be taken off the pitch by team captain Mrs May. At least, not yet.
The ultimate blame lies with the man who, in effect, threw the political rugby ball to them so recklessly – David Cameron. He put the fateful pledge in the 2015 Tory Election manifesto.
That manifesto set out very clearly in no less than four places an absolute commitment to not increasing NI.
However, I have no sympathy for Mrs May and Mr Hammond. They were both part of the Tory team that was elected on the basis of that manifesto.
It is also clear the Chancellor listened to the same officials who advised George Osborne on the ‘pasty tax’ – the sort of tidy-minded people to whom clearing up anomalies and inconsistencies appeals.
But in both cases, the move was politically crass, and with the increase in NI contributions, ignored the disadvantage of self-employed people who are denied access to social protection.
It also contrasted embarrassingly with tax cuts for corporations. And it drove a coach and horses through a clear manifesto pledge.
THE Lib Dems learned the hard way the cost of breaking Election pledges. We paid a heavy price for our decision in the Coalition to go against our ill-considered 2010 promise to phase out tuition fees. It is quite possible it cost some of my colleagues their seats. It may well have cost me mine.
Enormous damage was caused to the reputation of my party and its then leader, Nick Clegg, although I think with hindsight that many voters realised they overreacted and our support is returning.
Before the financial crisis, all parties made rash promises to students. Labour twice pledged in manifestos not to introduce or increase tuition fees. Even the Tories promised free tuition. We followed after the National Union of Students launched a campaign to get Par- liamentary candidates to sign a pledge to scrap or freeze fees. I am not blaming Nick. He faced an awkward predicament, but some of us were concerned it would end badly. It did.
As Business Secretary with responsibilities for universities, the tuition fee problem ended up on my desk. In short, I was on the receiving end of a political hospital pass.
For all the difficulties, I believed increased tuition fees, in the form of a progressive tax on graduate earnings, were in the interests of universities and students. They also helped avoid deep cuts elsewhere.
I decided we might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. So we took a deep breath and supported an increase in fees. It made us very unpopular with many of our supporters, but for all the fuss it has turned out to be successful.
Naturally, we were heavily criticised for going against our manifesto and very public pre-Election pledges – which we had. And clearly it played a part in our disastrous performance at the 2015 Election.
It is too soon to say what the impact will be on Mrs May and Mr Hammond for making the same mistake. But it is another reminder of how foolish it is to saddle yourself with over-ambitious commitments.
Nothing has caused more damage and political cynicism than the 2010 Tory manifesto pledge, repeated in 2015, to cut net immigration to under 100,000 a year.
We all knew the pledge was undeliverable except at enormous economic cost, not least as the number includes overseas students who are not immigrants but are classified as such. The public understandably became disillusioned when this target was not met. Brexit owes a lot to this miscalculation.
Manifestos are a kind of contract with the voters. But because of that, political parties must avoid larding them with rigid, unrealistic promises made out of desperation for power but which cannot be delivered – and which stop them doing the right things in government and reacting to changed circumstances.
You end up being unable to do the right and proper thing for the country because, if you do, you will damage your party and be exposed to the charge of being dishonest.
Most voters pay limited attention to what politicians say. But one thing they never forget is when you break a manifesto commitment. Lib Dems learned it the hard way.
Now Mrs May and Mr Hammond have done so as well. They deserve a caning every bit as much as we did.
They won’t be the last unless we end the manifesto madness. If politicians promised nothing more than Churchill’s ‘blood, sweat and tears’, they might earn more respect.
The Tories deserve their caning as much as we did