Tory come lately

10.55.08am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 23rd May 2008

The Conservatives have recently been making a great deal of noise about the need to compensate people who lose out as a result of Labour's decision to double the 10p income tax starter rate.

But they refused to support a compensation package when one was proposed last year.

In June 2007, in the House of Commons, after the tax rise was first announced, the Liberal Democrats and a small group of Labour backbenchers proposed an amendment to the Government's Finance Bill which would have made the Government compensate those people on low incomes who would end up paying more under Labour's tax grab plans.

Where were the Conservatives? "We cannot support it," said Conservative spokesperson Theresa Villiers MP during the parliamentary debate. Only one Conservative MP voted for compensation, and he has since resigned from the party!

The Conservatives only woke up to this issue and started making a fuss this year, after the changes came in, when they saw the press were interested in it. More than a year after the Liberal Democrats first raised the issue.