A quote from Daniel Hannan in The Daily Telegraph, 3 April 2006

The apparatus of public funding [of political parties] creates a lucrative career structure. A graduate can work for his local party branch, then put in a couple of years at the attached state-funded think-tank, and then stand for parliament. Throughout his life, he has been dependent on the largesse of the taxpayer.

So it is hardly surprising that, when he becomes a minister, he is comfortable with the idea of higher taxes. This is why even the notionally centre-Right parties in Europe tend to be corporatist.