Tories pledge 'tax break' for firms
Updated on 11 November 2008
David Cameron has called for tax breaks for businesses that take on new workers from the dole queue, claiming the move could cut unemployment by 350,000 in a year.
The Tory leader set out proposals for companies to be given a £2,500 National Insurance break for every job awarded to someone who has been unemployed for three months or more.
While rejecting Gordon Brown's plan to increase borrowing to stimulate the economy as "irresponsible", Mr Cameron said he would not simply allow joblessness to soar.
Instead he urged the Prime Minister to adopt the Tories' £2.6 billion tax break plan, which he said would fund itself by saving £8,000 in benefits for every new worker.
With Mr Brown laying the groundwork for an additional "fiscal stimulus" to stave off the downturn, the Government is expected to unveil its own tax cuts in the forthcoming Pre-Budget Report.
But the Prime Minister immediately dismissed the Tory strategy, insisting it was "not a funded tax cut at all" and that "the money is not there".
Mr Cameron drew the battlelines with Labour, warning that higher borrowing now would mean belt-tightening and tax rises later.
At a Westminster press conference, he said: "Having already maxed out one credit card, is it responsible for the Government to simply get another one?
"My answer to that is clear. It's irresponsible. It will saddle this generation and the next with a burden of debt that could take a decade or more to pay off.
"It means spending priorities shifting from schools and hospitals to servicing our debt. And irresponsible borrowing means more taxes on families and businesses in the years to come, putting a drag anchor on recovery."
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