Election 2015: Ed Balls defends 'non-dom' comments

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has denied confusion over Labour's pledge to scrap rules allowing some wealthy people to pay less tax on overseas earnings.

The party is promising to abolish the non-domicile status but Mr Balls warned in January such a decision could cost the nation money if people left the UK.

On an election visit to Whitland, Carmarthenshire, he said a "solution" had been found to avoid tax losses.

Plaid Cymru's Jonathan Edwards has welcomed Labour's proposed clampdown.

'Shambles'

Visiting a medical equipment manufacturer, Mr Balls said: "Back in January, when we were working on this policy, I was very clear that we had to make sure that we found a solution to keep people coming here for short visits, like students on courses, business people coming here for a year or two, we had to have a solution to that, because if those people didn't keep coming we would lose revenue.

"That's what we've done, so today we're clear - Labour will abolish the non-domicile rules - we will not have a situation where people can live here permanently and not pay tax, like everybody else."

Mr Balls said he believed the move would raise "hundreds of millions of pounds".

Earlier, Conservative Chancellor George Osborne said Labour's policy was "a total shambles".

"You have Ed Balls admitting it will cost Britain money and then when you look at the small print it turns out the majority of non-doms won't be affected, so the headlines are misleading," he said.

Meanwhile as campaigning continued around Wales on Wednesday, the Conservative Business Minister Matthew Hancock was visiting some of his party's target seats, pledging support for small firms.

The Liberal Democrats launched a £100m prize fund aimed at cutting pollution by developing greener cars.

Plaid Cymru has called for power over major energy projects to be devolved to the Welsh government.