THE Liberal Democrats are to push for a further hike in personal tax allowances in the Budget next month.
In a speech on the economy tonight Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will say raising the personal allowance on income tax is the "main item" he is demanding from George Osborne in the Budget on March 19.
He will also use his speech to business leaders at London's Mansion House to portray the LibDems as the party of Europe.
In his Autumn Statement, Mr Osborne increased the salary threshold at which people start paying tax by £235, to £9440, increasing take-home pay for thousands of low-income households.
Mr Clegg will say: "We want to keep cutting income tax for ordinary taxpayers. That will be the main item Danny Alexander and I push for in the Budget - again.
"In the next parliament we would raise the personal allowance so that no one pays any income tax on the first £12,500 they earn. It's our flagship policy because it's how we make work pay, and it's our way of making sure the British people know that this recovery is theirs."
Mr Clegg will seek distance from the Tories by portraying the LibDems as staunchly pro-Europe.
He will say: "We are doing everything we can to protect British trade as the country's most - you might argue only - properly internationalist party.
"As we head towards the European elections in May we will continue to make the case for Britain's membership of the EU - our biggest export market - for the sake of prosperity and jobs."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article