Gordon Brown warns over Tories’ ‘blank cheque’

GORDON Brown has warned that Theresa May wants a “blank cheque” from voters in next month’s General Election.

The former Labour leader said no Prime Minister should ever be given a free hand and called on Mrs May to spell out her approach to the Brexit negotiations.

Addressing activists in Fife yesterday, Mr Brown failed to mention current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn once in a powerful speech where he also claimed levels of poverty will be higher in the UK under Mrs May than they were under Margaret Thatcher.

Last night, Labour unveiled plans to impose a “Robin Hood tax” on financial transactions in the City – an idea rejected by Mr Brown when he was Prime Minister – to try to raise billions for public services.

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott shared a platform with Mr Brown and hit out at the current Labour leadership, claiming: “It’s a pity we don’t present the message as good as Gordon is presenting it.”

But in the same breath the Labour veteran also called for party unity, “whatever you think of the leader”.

Mr Brown said: “Theresa May says she wants to strengthen her hand in negotiations with Europe but she won’t tell us what that hand is.

“What she wants is a free hand, a blank cheque, carte blanche to do whatever she wants to.

“No prime minster should ever be given a blank cheque.”

Mr Brown highlighted “shocking” forecasts from the Institute For Fiscal Studies suggesting a record 15.7m British citizens will be in poverty by 2022, with five million children affected.

Mr Brown said: “That is more poverty than even under Mrs Thatcher. Mrs May’s Britain will have more poverty and inequality than even the poverty we saw in the Thatcher/Major years.

“She says she wants to unite the country, but she will create a country that is more divided economically and more socially polarised than at any time in our history in the last 50 years.”

Meanwhile, shadow chancellor John McDonnell has unveiled details of a “Robin Hood tax” which would revise the 322-year-old stamp duty regime on share-trading, closing down existing “loop holes” for banks and hedge funds on the taxes they pay.

At the current rate of 0.5% per transaction, Labour said the move would raise £4.7bn in 2016/17, rising to £5.6bn in 2021/22 – the final year of the next parliament.

The move is likely to cause an outcry in the City amid fears it will undermine the competitiveness of the financial sector at a time of uncertainty in the wake of the vote for Brexit.

Alex Wild, research director of campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “When politicians say things that sound too good to be true, invariably they are just that.

“Traders aren’t going to stick around and carry on as before if there’s no money to be made from what they’re doing.”

Meanwhile, Lord Prescott – a peer since 2010 – called for the abolition of the House of Lords.

He said: “We need a framework nationally but with decentralised powers and resources. I’d even throw in the House of Lords and get rid of that.”

On the divisive issue of Labour leadership, Mr Prescott added: It’s not just about leaders. I’ve served under 12 leaders, I’ve never agreed with all of their policies.

“But now we have a leader, I didn’t vote for him, but it is the party that is in the fight at the moment whatever you think of the leader. If we don’t get behind the party and we show disunity, we pay the price.”