Not again! Now an unfair car tax is embarrassing for Brown

Just when Gordon Brown was praying for some respite, another 10p row is brewing at Westminster - and again he only has himself to blame. This time the tax rebellion focuses on some small print in the Budget that could see the tax on ordinary family cars - vehicle excise duty - rising by 32 per cent as part of the Government's so-called anti-climate change measures. Already the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is rubbing his hands with glee, dubbing it a 'Ford Mondeo tax'.

The graduated higher vehicle excise duty (VED) for gas-guzzling 'Chelsea tractors' that emit more than 186g of carbon dioxide per kilometre was applauded when it was first announced as a far-sighted measure to protect the planet. However, Chancellor Alistair Darling has quietly and dramatically changed the proposal by removing an exemption for cars registered between 2001 and 2006.

VED on a Ford Mondeo estate, will go up by 32 per cent between 2007-08 and 2010-11. VED on a Renault Espace, a largish family car, will increase by 43 per cent, according to Tory estimates.

Labour MPs were slow to catch on but they have now realised that they are facing another electoral disaster, unless they get it changed. A total of 28 Labour MPs led by Ronnie Campbell, the down-to-earth MP for Blyth, have tabled a Commons motion calling for Darling to carry out a handbrake-turn on VED as abrupt as his U-turn on the 10p. They point out it will cost a fraction of the £2.7bn he is spending in a tax-giveaway to ameliorate the damage from the 10p blunder.

Even Labour MP and green campaigner Alan Simpson is outraged by the stupidity of what Brown and Darling were about to foist on an unsuspecting public. "Once again this will hit some of the less well-off who depend on older cars," said Simpson. "It is also unfair because it is retrospective. I'm all in favour of green taxes that change people's behaviour but this is just a punitive tax on action that some people took seven years ago."

He is planning to table an amendment to the report stage of the Budget to stop this nonsense going ahead. Brown again is worryingly in denial. He was challenged about the tax at his monthly press conference on Thursday and denied it was retrospective, because it only takes effect next year.

The Labour MPs are left scratching their heads in wonder - what on earth is going on in Gordon Brown's brain? Is he really this stupid? Or is there some cunning plan? Brown was cast as Mr Bean by Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat stand-in leader. Labour MPs think Brown is acting more like Baldrick, the character in another Rowan Atkinson vehicle Blackadder, whose 'cunning plans' inevitably ended in disaster.

THE MOLE: TAX REBELLION

FIRST POSTED MAY 16, 2008