The Conservative and Labour parties have announced that they would not raise VAT if they were to come into power after the general election in May.

David Cameron pledged that there will be no VAT rise during Prime Minister’s Questions after the Labour leader challenged him to explicitly rule out increasing the tax.

During a speech in Birmingham, Labour’s Ed Balls made a pledge not to increase the tax. He said “We will not put up VAT. And we will not extend it to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares”.