LABOUR runs into another row over tax as Tories claim the party plans to take more from middle-income earners.

This time, it is the words of Labour's deputy leader John Prescott that are seized on as he acknowledged that "quite a lot of people" would pay more under a fair tax system advocated by the party.

It is time for Tony Blair to end his coyness on tax.

For the prevailing vagueness leaves Labour wide open to Tory attacks - such as this one in which Mr Prescott's generalities are wedded swiftly to a poll of Labour backbenchers showing strong support for a new top rate of income tax on people earning more than £40,000 a year as "proof" that middle-income earners are in Labour's sights.

For sources close to Mr Blair say the real target for a new 50 per cent tax rate would be people on £80,000 to £100,000, with the income from their tax going to provide tax cuts for people on low incomes.

If so, why wait to declare what would be a popular policy?

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