3,000 locals miss out on 'by-election bribe!'

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 15th May 2008

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen has attacked Gordon Brown's plans to compensate low paid workers affected by the 10p income tax disaster. Over 3000* people in the Rochdale Borough will still be affected by the 10p tax debacle and the MP says that the Labour Government are lurching from 'one mess to another." In what has been described as a 'last throw of the dice' - the Chancellor Alastair Darling MP announced a £2.7bn tax cut. It is not clear where the Chancellor will find this money.

Mr Rowen, a Lib Dem Work and Pension's Shadow Minister said: "There is a lot of head scratching going on in Parliament at the moment. The Government are in the process of drip feeding announcements and are destabilising our country at the same time.

"Alastair Darling is no friend of Rochdale - it was him who cancelled the Metrolink to Rochdale 4 years ago. He now appears to picking and choosing who he will help and of the hole that he dug. This started out as a gimmick and he is trying to use gimmicks to sort it out.

"Yes, I welcome any additional help that is promised but this doesn't look good for a Prime Minister who built his reputation on 'economic competence.' Well this Government's tax proposals, that affect so many in our town are not exactly competent!"

*The figure of 3,000 is taken by dividing the 1,000,000 figure by the amount of Constituencies and is taken for the Rochdale Borough.