Front pages reviewed at midnight: Tuesday 1 February 2011

The Independent scoops the rest of the pack tonight (not often you can say that) with Robert Fisk securing the first full-length interview with the man most likely to take over from Mubarak in Egypt, Mohammed ElBaradei. The only other paper maybe worth a look in is the Telegraph which uses Wikileaks docs to reveal that ministers advised the Libyans on how to get the alleged Lockerbie bomber out of jail.

Why The Times is wrong to claim the VAT rise hits the rich hardest

The Times today argues that  as the VAT rise is not being added to food and children’s clothing, it is “likely to hit middle-class and higher income groups much more than poorer groups.” But when you look more closely at the statistics it is hard to see how this evidence is supported.

Let’s start by taking the figures at absolute face value. The Deloitte figures the paper uses show that those families earning a combined income of £70,000 will pay £561 more in tax a year, while those on a household income of £25,000 pay an extra £150. So these initial figures suggest that the rich are hardest hit by the tax rise.