Osborne refuses to 'behave like a Tory' and save 40p taxpayers

He needs the money – and he needs to refute Labour's charge that he's only out to help the rich

The Mole

A POISONOUS Tory row over the 40p tax rate is threatening to wreck the most important Budget of Chancellor George Osborne’s career on Wednesday - but he is determined to defy the demands of Conservative grandees for the upper tax threshold to be raised by more than inflation.

It means hundreds of thousands of middle-income earners, many of them potential Tory voters, will be dragged into paying the highest rate of tax on the top slice of their earnings.

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is the pseudonym for a London-based political consultant who writes exclusively for The Week.co.uk.