Did the last Labour governments really hike taxes by £1,895 a year?

IFS has estimated that Labour's changes to income tax actually represent a tax rise of 600 per household

George Osborne has stepped up his campaign against Labour on tax by claiming that the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown increased taxes on earnings on the average household by 1,895 a year in real terms.

The chancellor said on Tuesday: "When it comes to tax rises, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have done it all before - and they would do it all over again, if they had the chance. Higher taxes and higher debts under Labour would cost jobs and take Britain back to square one."

Those calculations overlook non-working households - most notably the retired. So their figures seem higher than mine, but there is more than one way to skin a cat.