Speaking to the BBC, Chancellor of the Exchequer Darling has moved to calm fears that an income tax hike may be in the offing to help address the ever-expanding government borrowing requirement. The Chancellor when asked if income tax would go up replied “it is not the time to take money out of the economy.” He also seemingly rejected calls from the trade unions to increase taxes on the wealthy and for the introduction of an energy windfall tax, saying “i don’t want to destabilise the tax system.” Darling is scheduled to give a keynote speech at the Labour party conference in Manchester this afternoon.