Advertisement

Cameron Aide Urged Thatcher To Launch Poll Tax

Cameron Aide Urged Thatcher To Launch Poll Tax

A senior Conservative urged Margaret Thatcher to go ahead with the controversial poll tax when he was a young adviser in her government, newly-released records have revealed.

Oliver Letwin pushed the former prime minister to introduce the "community charge" in Scotland first, despite strongly-worded warnings from several high-profile ministers, including then chancellor Nigel Lawson.

In a 1985 memo, Mr Letwin wrote: "No one can say you are being insufficiently radical, since you will be… trying out an extremely radical system in a significant part of the country.

"By the same token, no one can accuse you of being rash, since you will be reserving your options on domestic rates in England and Wales."

But the policy adviser, now a minister in the Cabinet Office, did identify "a number of unpleasant effects" - as 7.5 million households would lose out as part of the flat-rate tax.

Doubts had begun to surface over whether the poll tax was feasible, with its architect even calling for a watered-down alternative.

Mr Lawson had warned that the entire scheme, which triggered riots and protests across Britain after its introduction in 1989, would be "completely unworkable and politically catastrophic".

In a bid to stop Mrs Thatcher from implementing the policy, he wrote: "The biggest gainers will be the better-off households in high rateable value properties, the losers would be poorer households, particularly larger ones."

The papers have been released by the National Archives in Kew, west London, under the 30-year rule.

The delay in the release of government files will gradually be reduced to 20 years over the coming decade.