Brown's VAT cut is a £12.5 billion failure

David Cameron dismissed Gordon Brown’s VAT cut as “an expensive failure” at Prime Minister’s Questions.

He attacked Mr. Brown for wasting £12.5 billion of taxpayers’ money on a 2.5% cut that has been ridiculed by shoppers and condemned by retailers.

Britain’s biggest retailers have attacked the VAT reduction, with the head of Marks & Spencer saying it hasn’t made a difference, and the head of Sainsbury’s describing it as an annoyance.

David stressed the cut had achieved nothing, and attacked the Prime Minister for adding yet more money to the national debt:

“By spending £12.5 billion on a VAT cut, isn’t he just building up debts for Britain’s children to save his own skin?”

David also accused Labour of copying Conservative policies, after introducing "pale imitations" of our package to help jobseekers return to work and our loan guarantee scheme.