Diageo and Unilever throw a tax gauntlet down to the Tories

First it was Unilever threatening to leave the UK for tax reasons, now it is Diageo . A cynic might see a concerted effort by corporate UK to bounce the Tories into making a post-election pledge to cut the 50p top-rate of income tax by the end of a first parliament. Shadow chancellor George Osborne's "eight benchmarks for the British economy" (endorsed by Diageo's Paul Walsh, by the way) said the Tories don't regard the 50p rate as "a permanent feature of the tax system". The chief executives seem to want something stronger – like a concrete commitment to cut and a firm timetable.