Liberal Democrats challenge Brown over rich-poor divide

10.49.48pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 18th Jul 2007

At today's Prime Minister's Questions Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell tackled Gordon Brown over yesterday's Rowntree report on inequality. He highlighted that the report had said that the gap between rich and poor is as wide as it has been for 40 years. "How does the Prime Minister propose to deal with this unfairness?" he asked. Pointing out that people earning less than £18,500 a year pay more tax as a result of Mr Brown's last budget, he asked the Prime Minister why he didn't close the loophole on tax for the very rich and use that to support those on low and middle incomes: "Why not legislate for the many and not the few?"

Jo Coburn, the presenter commenting on the public 'Perception Panel' for BBC2's Daily Politics, said that the public verdict was that "it was the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell who had the knockout blow this week" with his challenge to the Prime Minister.