Jason Zadrozny in a debate on tax

11.40.00pm GMT Sat 12th Dec 2009

Jason Zadrozny took part in a debate on tax last week, on behalf of Grant Thornton chartered accountants. The debate took place at Nottingham City Hall in front of a number of businesses from across Nottinghamshire.

The panel for the debate included:

Jason Zadrozny, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Ashfield and Eastwood.

Alan Simpson, Labour MP.

Ewan Lamont - Conservative PPC

John Dowson - Head of Policy and Representation at Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce.

Nottinghamshire based businesses were invited to the event to allow them to voice their opinions on Grant Thornton's manifesto suggestions. Live interactive voting allowing participants to vote on the debate was used, with interesting results.

The feedback from this event will be collated alongside similar events in other regions across the UK and presented back to treasury committee members and all major political parties.

The key themes of the debate were:

Theme 1 - Providing support for business

Theme 2 - Boosting the economy/getting people back to work

Theme 3 - Establishing a new era of transparency

Jason Zadrozny said, "It is now crystal clear that only the Liberal Democrats have the policies needed to get Britain back on track and sort out the terrible financial mess that Labour has gotten us into. I was pleased and encouraged by the interactive voting results from the debate, which showed many people (over 80% of those voting) preferred our policy on raising the Income Tax threshold to £10,000."

Vince Cable MP, Shadow Chancellor, had this to say on the pre budget report:

"Bankers will be breathing a sigh of relief. They are faced with a one-off tax that they can easily avoid - while many other people will be facing a permanent tax increase.

In his Pre-Budget Report, Alistair Darling had the chance to clamp down on bankers and set out how he intends to guide the country out of the recession. Instead, all he set out was a weak party manifesto full of gimmicks and empty gestures.

I recorded a video message about the Pre-Budget Report and the economy earlier this evening.

Never before has the British Government run up a deficit like this. We need a sensible and coherent plan for dealing with it, yet the Chancellor ducked the hard choices on spending and cuts. Instead of making the tax system fairer, people on middle incomes will be paying more tax while those at the top enjoy their loopholes. The hidden costs of this budget will be borne by low paid workers who face a cut in real wages because of the 1% pay rise - which is lower than inflation.

In a time of tough demands on government spending it is important we protect frontline public services and the people who work in them. This means there will have to be discipline over pay. That is why I have suggested that there should be a maximum pay rise of £400 a year throughout the public sector. That would mean that workers at the lower end of the payscale would see a real increase but not those at the top.

The Tories would freeze the salaries of millions of teachers, police officers, nurses and firemen while cutting taxes for millionaires. But our proposals would ensure pay rises for key frontline services that are fair and economically realistic. Many public sector workers will also benefit from our £700 income tax cut for people on low and middle incomes.

Our proposals would limit the growth of the public sector pay bill while ensuring fairness for teachers, nurses, police officers and other public sector workers. They will save taxpayers about £4bn a year while reducing pressure on front line services and protecting jobs.

We remain the only party that is placing fairness at the heart of all its proposals to repair the economy.".

For more information on our finance policies visit:

Fairer taxes

http://www.libdems.org.uk/our_campaigns_detail.aspx?title=Fair_taxes_at_the_heart_of_Liberal_Democrat_message_&pPK=799f14f0-5b51-4d92-89b8-206c615b33bb

Public-sector pay

http://www.libdems.org.uk/our_campaigns_detail.aspx?title=Vince_Cable_announces_Liberal_Democrat_public_sector_pay_proposals&pPK=483ca59e-398f-4d74-91fe-a0249cdbf204

Jobs

http://www.libdems.org.uk/economy_jobs.aspx