GEORGE Osborne has insisted a future Tory government would not need to raise VAT to balance the nation's books but failed to give a "cast-iron guarantee" to match Labour's pledge not to increase the consumption tax over the five years of the next Parliament.

Labour insist the Conservatives harbour a "secret plan" to raise VAT if they won the General Election and the Chancellor, appearing before the Commons Treasury Committee to answer questions on the Budget, was pressed repeatedly to rule one out by Opposition backbenchers John Mann and Andy Love. The former, who represents Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, challenged Mr Osborne four times to give a "cast-iron guarantee" to rule out putting up VAT.

Insisting he did not intend to raise the tax, the Chancellor said: "I have identified where the £30bn of savings need to come from and they don't involve a VAT rise.

"The question for those who say they are going to try to balance the books but say it mainly has to be done through tax, as the official Opposition does, is to spell out what those big tax rises are. And it's pretty clear today they have opened the door to a big increase in National Insurance and the 'jobs tax' and it would be very, very damaging for this country," added Mr Osborne.

Earlier, Ed Balls, his Labour Shadow, announced Labour would pledge not to raise VAT in the next parliament and pointed out how in 2010 the Tories before the election said they had no plans to raise the consumption tax and then did so once they got into power.

"Now history is repeating itself all over again," declared Mr Balls. "It's the same Tory lie about VAT: 1979, 1992, 2010 and now 2015. Everybody in the country knows what it means: the Tories have a secret plan to raise VAT again," claimed the Shadow Chancellor.