Shadow minister sacked over article on VAT

THE LABOUR peer Lord Desai yesterday said he had been sacked as a shadow minister in the Lords because he advocated the removal of zero rating for VAT on all items.

He was removed from his post after John Major had quoted him in the Commons on Thursday, during exchanges with John Smith, the Labour leader, from a passage in an article in Tribune, the left-wing newspaper.

Later the Opposition whips' office issued a statement saying that Lord Desai, a minister on the economy and health, had 'stepped down' from the front bench and would be succeeded by Lord Williams of Mostyn.

The article by Lord Desai, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, had severely embarrassed Mr Smith. 'I favour the higher band income tax and the removal of the ceiling on national insurance contributions that Labour's 1992 shadow Budget proposed. Failing that, I would remove zero rating for VAT on all items,' he said in the article.