Starting rate of UK income tax

[2] The reduced tax rate for low incomes was introduced in Gordon Brown's third budget as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

This is not about gimmicks; this is about tax reform that encourages work and families, on the families side it is replacing what was an anomalous married couples' allowance and replace it with a child tax credit."

[6] As part of his plans for the national budget for 2008 (his last as Chancellor of the Exchequer), Gordon Brown announced in 2007 that the reduced tax rate for low incomes would be abolished from April 2008.

[9] In May 2008, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the 2008–09 personal allowance would be increased by £600 (from £5435 to £6035)[10] to help low-income tax-payers affected by the abolition of the 10% starting rate of income tax.

In the years after the abolition of the reduced tax rate for low incomes, the UK government made further adaptations to personal income taxation, notably to the personal allowance.