British finance minister Alistair Darling told business chiefs Tuesday that his Labour government would make a final decision next month on controversial plans to reform company tax rules.
Darling, whose Labour party is being trounced at the opinion polls by the main opposition Conservatives, set the date on the final day of the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
Taking the floor earlier Tuesday, Tory leader David Cameron had called on Darling to ditch plans for a flat-rate tax of 18 percent on assets sold at a profit, which the CBI argues is unfair to small businesses who currently pay a lower amount.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Darling told business chiefs: "I know that my proposals to introduce a single rate of capital gains tax have been controversial. That was inevitable." He added: "We are working with the CBI and other business organisations to listen to what you have to say.
"I expect to publish proposals in the next three weeks." Cameron said the job of government was to encourage busines - and not to add barriers. "We should be making it easier for people to start and grow businesses and to profit from it - not more difficult. That's why I'm calling on Alistair Darling to resolve the uncertainty he's created when he speaks to you later today.
"The best thing he can do is stand up, admit he's made a mistake and abandon his ill-conceived plans," Cameron told CBI delegates. He added: "If (Darling) fails to abandon or radically alter his approach, we will fight his tax hike on Britain's entrepreneurs every step of the way, both inside and outside parliament."
Government plans to reform Capital Gains Tax have caused more controversy among CBI members than any other issue for years, according to the lobby group's director-general Richard Lambert. Cameron's Conservatives, meanwhile, are enjoying their biggest poll lead since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and leader of the party in the 1980s.
The ComRes survey for The Independent newspaper published Tuesday put the Conservatives on 40 percent, a one percentage point drop since last month, while Brown's Labour Party slipped six points to 27 percent. The 13-point gap is the Tories' biggest lead since a Times/MORI poll in August 1988 put the Conservatives 14 points ahead.
According to The Independent, if the results held in a general election, the Conservatives would have a 64-seat majority in the House of Commons, almost as high as Labour's current parliamentary advantage.
The poll comes in the aftermath of a disastrous few weeks for the government - including the loss of sensitive data on 25 million Britons that came on the heels of a banking crisis that hurt Labour's economic credibility.
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