Govt split over 'mansion tax'

Neither Vince nor I know what will be put before us so we can't of course determine in advance how we would vote.

But of course the Liberal Democrats for a long time have been the leading advocate of greater fairness in tax.

The Conservatives need to speak for themselves.

I for the life of me don't understand why the Conservatives think it's ok that an oligarch can buy a palace in Regent's Park for tens of millions of pounds and pay the same council tax as a three-bedroom family house in Lewisham.

That is just unfair.

We can't keep turning a blind eye to the super wealthy basically being taxed the same way on their properties as hard working families across the country.

The Liberal Democrats have always been unambiguous that they want to make the tax system fairer.

The Conservatives don't want to do that.

They don't want, perhaps, to offend people in very large mansions.

They need to answer for themselves.

I'm absolutely sure that what we stand for is the right thing.

All we've got from Ed Miliband last week is some blatant plagiarism of Liberal Democrat ideas and still no remorse for the biggest economic meltdown in modern times.

Labour cannot be taken seriously until its leaders apologise for the economic mess they created, apologise for the unfair tax system they left behind, and apologise for letting tax avoidance rip.

It's laughable for George Osborne to claim his policies are fair when he's giving a huge tax cut to millionaires while forcing millions on middle and low incomes to pay more.

Labour wants action now to kick-start our flatlining economy and help people struggling with the rising cost of living.

George Osborne should back Labour's plan for a new lower 10p rate of tax paid for by a mansion tax on homes worth over £2 million.

This would be fair, help 25 million working people on middle and low incomes and boost spending power in the economy.

I am opposed to it.

I think it's a homes tax and I'm not in favour of the mansion tax, which as I say you have to go and value all these homes around the country, the inspectors get their foot in the door, after the election suddenly it's everyone's homes that are potentially a target and Labour will have created a new tax.

It's just another thing that proves that I don't think they understand aspiration in this country.

People's homes that they've worked very hard for all their lives and saved for, and by the way people want to give those homes to their children as well.

The Government - the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats - we've got a better policy which is a zero percent tax rate.

We've more than helped all the people that were clobbered by Gordon Brown's 10p tax rate by turning that 10p tax into a zero.

We've actually made people better off by £300 so there is a way of helping people on low incomes.

We've taken a million people out of tax altogether so I would say a zero percent tax rate is going to be a little bit more attractive at an election than a 10% tax rate and that's certainly been our priority.

In a time like this you expect the rich to pay moreand actually we are forcing the rich to pay more and indeed cracking down onthose who don't pay their taxes.

But fairness is also about having a systemwhere people who work hard and get on can get on in our society. Fairness isabout a welfare system that doesn't pay for people to stay at home.

Fairness isquite a broad concept and people feel the system's unfair but I don't thinkthis kind of tax con is a solution to that.