Gordon Brown has raised taxes by the equivalent of an additional 16.5 pence on the basic rate of income tax since he became chancellor, according to the Conservatives.

The chancellor is said to have introduced 66 "stealth taxes" in his eight Budgets since 1997.

Oliver Letwin, the shadow chancellor, said the figures showed that Tony Blair's promise in 1995 - two years before he became prime minister - that Labour had "no plans at all to increase taxes" was a "cruel sham".