Voters’ rejection of higher taxes explains Brown’s sneaky sell-off

Like the high street traders desperately offering 75 per cent discounts to stay in business, MPs are growing increasingly alarmed that Gordon Brown is planning a Sale of the Century of the Government's assets to try to make ends meet.

He shocked MPs by flogging off the Goverment's remaining shares in the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire to an American company, California-based Jacobs Engineering for an undisclosed sum, as soon as the Commons rose for the Christmas recess.

Now the Mole hears that Brown is preparing sell off the Exeter-based Met Office to the highest bidder. And once he's flogged off Britain's world-respected weather forecasting system, he has his sights on the Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, the QE2 Conference Centre, and even the place where the Bank of England prints its money, the Royal Mint.

The plans were slipped out in the small print of the Pre Budget Report by Alistair Darling but with all eyes on the huge sums the Chancellor was ready to borrow - and the promise to raise taxes after the election - the 'Flog It' attic sale was largely overlooked. Other contenders include British Waterways, which is regarded as less saleable because of a backlog of maintenance.

Brown set a target of raising £36bn from disposals by 2011 and more than £18bn has been raised so far, by getting rid of surplus land and property. Lord Stockton (Harold Macmillan) famously complained that Lady Thatcher was selling off the family silver. Now Brown is intent on flogging off the family shop as well – and Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, says he could not have picked a worse time to do so. He will squander billions in his rush for cash.

It is easy to see why Brown is tempted to raise cash. The latest ComRes opinion poll in today's Independent shows a growing public aversion to Brown's promise to spend more on public services, which would mean Labour going into the next general election with a plan to raise taxes.

The Independent poll shows that Labour has lost the 'bounce' it enjoyed in the early days of the financial crisis, with the Tories up two points on last month's figure at 39 per cent against Labour on 34 per cent (down two points) and the Lib Dems on 16 per cent. In a general election, these figures would lead to a hung parliament.

However, asked how they would vote if the Conservatives committed to lower public spending, with no tax rise, 49 per cent of respondents said they would vote Tory with 32 per cent for Labour and 11 per cent for the Lib Dems - which would give David Cameron a whopping majority.

Ironically, staff at the Indy think they are next in line for the big sell-off in the New Year. They start sharing the offices of the Daily Mail in January and there are rumours that the Mail is ready to snap them up at a bargain-basement price, when owner Tony O'Reilly offloads the paper to cut his own losses.

THE MOLE: COMRES POLL

FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 23, 2008