Observer

Is Boris going to be a thorn in Dave’s side in the years ahead?

What might be good economics is not necessarily always good politics, as the Conservative leadership are discovering over the issue of whether or not to implement Labour’s planned 2011 income tax rise of 45p for the top rate.

Lord Tebbit, who prefers spending cuts to tax rises, may be a repeat offender on speaking out against party policy in recent years, but then he does not have a political career ahead of him. More significant is the fact that London Mayor Boris Johnson has spoken out vociferously against the planned tax hike, although John Redwood has been more supportive, describing the tax as a “Labour trap”.

Johnson … said “clobbering the rich” could be counterproductive. He told BBC Radio Four’s Any Questions that “it sends out a signal to people who create wealth, people who are energetic … that we want to take more of their proceeds away than before. It is a deterrent to enterprise.”

The Conservative leadership market has been discussed recently here on PB and has rightly been seen to be akin to a lottery, not least because we don’t know when the next contest will be. But is Boris, quoted at 5-1, already flexing his muscles for what might be the next leadership contest after he has finished two mayoral terms in 2016, in a posssible second Cameron term?

Also in the Sundays:

Mail – McNulty in £60,000 expenses for parents’ home
Times – Myners ran tax haven firm
Rawnsley – Party is over for the public sector
Independent – Goodwin could face legal action

Double Carpet