Budget 2012: Ed Balls demands tax cuts to boost growth

Balls said he favoured a VAT cut but, if that isn't approved, he also suggested a 3p income tax cut for a year, bringing forward the planned personal allowance rise to £10,000 and higher tax credits. No tax cut could mean "a permanent dent in our nation's prosperity", he said. He told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show the current austerity measures were "self defeating" and had left Chancellor George Osborne claiming he was "trapped by the credit rating agencies". "We've got to get growth back in the economy," he told the programme. Writing in the Sunday Times, Balls said: "Some pe...