Yes, you're correct - Tories have a worse record but not by much. Just had a gander at the history of Purchase Tax and VAT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-...United_Kingdom

I see from 1979 to 1997 the blues more than doubled VAT from 8% to 17.5%, with predictable howls of protest from the red benches, but when the reds returned to power in 1997 they retained that 17.5% rate for the next 11 years other than for some minor changes to reduce VAT on leccy and gas bills plus a few other things.