Balls accuses Tories over bonus taxes

Labour has accused the Tories of failing to do enough to curb bankers' bonuses. Ed Balls, the shadow Chancellor, said there had been "sound and fury" from the Coalition on bonuses but no action since the election last May.

"The Tory-led government should put their words into action and deliver on Labour's plan to require banks to reveal who gets million-pound bonuses," Mr Balls said. "They should re-think their plan to give the banks a tax cut this year and adopt Labour's plan to repeat last year's £3.5bn bank-bonus tax."

His comments came as David Cameron ruled out "significant" tax cuts while the Government is cutting spending to reduce the deficit. The Prime Minister said he wanted to offer people "relief", but suggested that would only be possible "at the end of this hard road".

He also insisted there was no "Plan B" on the Coalition's deficit-reduction strategy. "I'm a tax-cutting Tory... but when you're borrowing 11 per cent of your GDP, it's not possible to make significant net tax cuts – it just isn't," he said.