Labour plan to use any earning from the mansion tax to support the NHS.
Speaking on The Daily Politics, Reed refused to name the proposed tax rate on properties over £2m, while he also failed to state whether the tax will apply for the whole £2m or just between £2m and £3m in a theoretical case proposed by Neil.
Neil blasted: “You’re saying that this mansion tax will come on stream immediately and yet you cannot tell us in any way how it will operate? Can you tell us what rate of the mansion tax will be; what will be the percentage?”
Reed evaded several questions before saying “the details will be brought forward in the budget” which prompted another backlash from Neil.
Neil said: “I’m sorry but these are not details – whether the mansion tax will be in my example on all the £3m or just the difference between £2 and £3m and what percentage are not details; they are fundamental.
“Don’t people have a right to know what these taxes will be?”
And things turned from bad to worse for Reed, who claimed that ‘independent experts’ have verified that the party will raise £1.2bn from the tax in its first full year of operation – yet he ignored Neil’s question “what independent experts?”
The feed to the BBC was then cut, with Neil quipping “somebody’s pulled the plug there, I wonder why!”
