Gauke blunder symptomatic of coalition’s failure to ease middle class suspision

David Gauke, a treasury minister, told the Daily Telegraph this week that home owners paying workmen in cash are evading income tax and VAT and are implicit in forcing others to pay more.

The comments were made as an afterthought. Gauke’s main reason for speaking to the press was to outline the treasury’s plans to crackdown on millionaire tax avoidance schemes.

But the reference to cash payments grinded on many people as it was seen as a snide indictment of a perfectly legal and honest exchange- it is workmen, not customers, who are obliged to inform HMRC when they receive cash payments so they are liable for tax.

Although cash in hand transactions not reported to the taxman are a legitimate problem, costing the treasury £2 billion a year, Gauke’s phrase ‘morally wrong’; which he used to describe punters who hand over cash to plumbers, builders and carpenters drew a torrent of unnecessary criticism.

Labour MP Austin Mitchell branded Gauke ‘unnecessarily moralistic’ and accused him of neglecting large scale tax avoidance, exactly what he was supposed to have been informing the press about in the first place.

The public, in the spirit of the age, are now baying for coalition politicians to confess whether or not they have paid workmen in cash.

David Cameron has but certainly never in his life has he endorsed tax avoidance, Nick Clegg has, Justine Greening is more careful, James Brokenshire (security minister) wouldn’t but declines to say whether he has in the past.

It all looks like a jumble of hypocrisy and retractions.

It is another example of this government rubbing salt in the eye of the public whilst saying something they agree with.

Everyone in Britain thinks you can’t run a business without paying tax, a minority try to get away with it; 66% of Britain also thinks tax avoidance is morally wrong, according to a recent guardian poll.

The incident follows another moment when David Cameron’s publicly denounced comedian Jimmy Carr over his tax affairs. Labour Leader Ed Miliband demanded to know why he didn’t also accuse Gary Barlow, a less controversial celebrity- making it look like the PM had double standards.

Governments in this country woo the middle classes to survive. With cuts to child care, tweaks in the tax band pushing 700,000 middle rate payers into the highest rate and air passenger duty it can’t afford to be perceived as scourges of the service sector as well.

All these media slip-ups have to stop if the Conservative party want to regain the damaged trust of this crucial part of the electorate.