The liberal democrat’s leader Nick Clegg has confirmed that if his party were to win this coming general election in May 2015 then they will raise taxes on the highest earners.

The deputy prime minister said the plan to cut the deficit would involve “a mixture of the following components: clamping down on tax evasion and tax avoidance; significant additional savings in Whitehall”. He was speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

He continued: “There needs to be some additional savings but not nearly on the totally implausible scale the Conservatives have said in the welfare budget and there will need to be some tax increases as well which fall on the wealthiest in society.”

However, although that policy may seem to prove extremely popular amongst the UK voting population, a similar policy put forward by the US president Barack Obama has been met with fierce criticism from their opponents the republicans.

He plans to propose a series of measures designed help fund extra middle-class-friendly tax credits, he will do this by using these measures to bring in $300bn (£197bn).

Part of Obama’s plan includes raising the top rate of tax on capital gains to 28%, up from 23.8%, as well as closing the loophole allowing heirs of large estates to avoid paying the full rate of tax.

Also, all of the US’s largest finance firms – those with more than $50bn in assets will face a new fee, but with the US congress deeply split on the idea of fiscal policy, it is likely to be strongly opposed by the majority.