Cameron said Darling had begun his reign as Chancellor by copying the Tory-proposed Inheritance Tax cut and would leave it by copying the Stamp Duty relief for first-time buyers first proposed by shadow Chancellor George Osborne in 2007. Cameron also claimed that economic secretary Ian Pearson had already ‘torpedoed’ the cut as not being ‘an effective use of public money’.
In a scathing attack, Cameron went on to denounce the Mortgage Support Scheme for only helping 15 homeowners at a cost of £66,000 per household.
The leader of the opposition said the Labour party had overseen the deepest recession since the war and been responsible for a burgeoning deficit and slide in global competitiveness.
Using a football analogy, Cameron added: “We’ve gone from the top of the Premier League to the bottom of the Conference in 13 wasted years, and it’s time to sack the manager.”
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg welcomed the Stamp Duty reform but criticised Darling for ignoring the 1.8 million families on the waiting list for affordable housing. He also labelled Labour’s failure to address the systemic failures in the banking system as shocking.
