Gordon Brown 'We want an election'.

Thank you. Your vote on this poll has been recorded and
added together will other votes cast. Below are the current results for
this poll. Remember this poll is still open and the results can change.

Is tax in Britain too high?

Yes	72.5%
No	23.9%
Don't know

Deputy Leader Harriet Harman added to a sense of crisis by suggesting the episode could have caused long-term damage to Mr Brown.

Neither Mr Brown nor Mr Darling has criticised the principle of the Conservatives’ plan to raise the inheritance tax threshold from £300,000 to £1m and the Treasury accepts the need to do more because of the saliency of the tax in voters’ concerns.

The prime minister aborted Labour’s plans for a November election after private polls warned that his 66-seat majority would be cut. He said it was “unlikely” there would be a poll now before 2009.

In an interview broadcast yesterday, Mr Brown denied he had retreated from an election in the face of adverse polls, saying: "The easiest thing I could have done is call an election. We could have won an election now or won an election sooner or later. But the issue for me is not an election simply about competence, although I believe we would have won that, but an election about our vision for the future."

 
He suggested that he would need until 2009 to implement that vision.

Amid signs that the “feelgood factor” is on the wane, a study out today finds the squeeze on people’s spending money is at its worst level in at least 10 years, thanks to higher tax bills and the rising cost of essentials such as food, fuel and mortgages.

"But everybody knows he is not having an election because he thinks there is a chance of losing it and I think that is just treating people like fools and I think it will rebound on him very badly.

"I am disappointed. I wanted an election from the moment he walked into Downing Street because I don't believe he has a mandate and I want to take our arguments to the British people.