Uncertainty surrounds the Liberal Democrats' policy on mansion taxes as two of the most senior figures in the party appear to be taking distinctly different views.
Business Secretary Vince Cable, speaking on BBC Radio 4, has described the mansion tax as a measure on high value properties which would raise £1.5 billion and which was a central plank of the party's policy for the forthcoming election.
However, party leader Nick Clegg - this time on BBC TV - has said that: I went off, big time, the idea that you have a fixed levy as a percentage over a certain value. The more I looked at it, the more I thought, 'That's very crude.' It leads to eye-watering amounts of tax being paid
Instead Clegg says: What we should do is go with the grain of the council tax system and apply bands to higher properties.
Meanwhile Labour's shadow chancellor Ed Balls has told Sky News that his party's version of a mansion tax, starting for homes valued at £2m and confirmed two weeks ago at Labour's annual conference, would cover Buckingham Palace and all Royal households.
There has "always been a cross-party consensus that we have fair and tough rules for the financing of the royal household", adding the royals "pay taxes just like everybody else and rightly so. There aren't different rules for anybody. That's the nature of our society" says Balls.
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