And it is undermining the ability of HMRC to administer and collect the tax, by cutting its resources too far and too fast.
The reduction in HMRC headcount is a direct consequence of, indeed part of the plan of, the merger of Inland Revenue with Customs&Excise.
Something planned by George Brown when Chancellor. And the SpAd to George Brown when Chancellor was….Ed Balls.
You actually planned this you tosser!
He is a politician, and a particularly oily example of the breed, so breathtaking hypocrisy and lies are to be expected.
*Pendant alert!!*
*Gordon* Brown
George Brown?
I know it is difficult to tell Osborne and Gordon’s economics policies apart some times, but surely you aren’t suggesting they are the same man?
Perhaps our genial host is showing his age here and is thinking of the former deputy labour leader from the 60s and 70s?..
George Brown was never Chancellor. He was Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.
And SpAds hadn’t been invented then, so Ed Balls could never have been his SpAd.
Ed Balls
Reason number 43 never to vote Labour
@BraveFart:
I hope reason number 43 is the 43rd in a very long list…
Reason number 43 for “Never”
I’d put him in the top ten for 2015
I’ve met Ed Balls. He’s the Conservative Party’s greatest asset. Got to be worth a good 20,000 votes in his own right.
I’m just amused that he won re-election as an MP. Though what that says about voters is another matter.
George Briwn was the minister who spent the Wilson years as a drunk. Understandable, really.
Oh bugger, Brown!!!!!
@ Martin Davies
He came close to losing a “safe seat”