Kennedy sets out election stall

Kennedy says local income tax will be based on ability to pay

A vote for the Liberal Democrats at next month's local elections is a vote to scrap the council tax, leader Charles Kennedy has insisted.

Outlawing the charge and replacing it with a local income tax is a key plank of the party's election campaign.

"We are offering people the chance at these elections to use their votes to help scrap the unfair council tax," Mr Kennedy said at the campaign launch.

"We want to replace it with something that's both fairer and cheaper."

Backlash

At a news conference in central London, Mr Kennedy insisted that his party was the only one with a policy to replace the tax.

The party won last year's Brent East by-election on a platform including a pledge of a £100 council tax refund.

That policy has now been dropped but Mr Kennedy insisted voters would not feel short-changed.

Council tax has proved a hot political issue this year

"What we argued for then was cushioning the impact of council tax as it affects local communities," he said.

Now the party was promising a fairer system across the board, he said.

The government is currently reviewing how councils are funded and the Lib Dems say voting for them in the June polls would send ministers an indication of the discontent with the charge.

Key message

The Lib Dems routinely do well in local elections and the party is likely to benefit from the backlash to hefty rises in the council tax.

Local government spokesman Edward Davey told BBC News Online: "What we are saying to people is that given the government is looking at this, given you have a chance to vote before they come to their conclusions, send them a message."

Mr Kennedy said a local income tax was not only "fairer", but was a "tried and tested" method of taxation that has already been used in many countries around the world.

Charles Kennedy has been deceiving voters the length and breadth of the country Ian McCartney Labour chairman

It was based on a simple principle: "the more money you earn, the more you pay - the less money you have, the less you pay".

It was often older people, sometimes living on their own, who felt the unfairness of the council tax, he said.

Mr Kennedy said he would not be using his party's anti-war stance on Iraq to bolster support - saying this was a message for the European elections being held on the same day.

The party published a number of manifestoes from Lib Dem groups in some of their core areas.

But it set out five themes which it says link its campaigns nationwide: value for money services; cleaner environment; safer communities; affordable housing; and economic regeneration.

The Lib Dems' opponents accuse them of opportunism, of saying one thing in one area and another elsewhere. The party dismisses such claims as nonsense, saying it has consistent principles but local priorities.

Deception charge

The June elections are being seen as a key test for Mr Kennedy, who has shrugged off concerns about his health after a stomach bug caused him to miss the Budget statement.

Tory spokeswoman Caroline Spelman said the Lib Dem plans for a local income tax was "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

She said: "It would do nothing to address the underlying problem of manipulated Whitehall funding."

Labour chairman Ian McCartney said the Lib Dems decision to drop their £100 refund pledge showed their "unaffordable promises" were not worth the paper they were written on.

"Charles Kennedy has been deceiving voters the length and breadth of the country," he added.