Tax minister James Murray subjected LBC listeners to a torturous four-minute interview with Nick Ferrari thanks to his inability to answer basic questions on the government’s decision to ‘abolish’ the Payment Systems Regulator. Labour announced last night the PSR’s functions will be moved to the Financial Conduct Authority…
Murray couldn’t say when asked how many people work at the small regulator (165). He couldn’t say what would happen to its employees: “That’s going to be looked at over the summer in terms of the detail” through a consultation. There is no suggestion that companies will no longer have to pay fees towards a payment regulator – last year the PSR collected £27.3 million from firms. So the ‘abolition’ just means companies interacting with a different email address and no money saved…
Meanwhile Labour’s other big red tape announcement this week is the hike of the £1,000 tax return threshold for trading income to £3,000 – but only by 2029. If the threshold had increased in line with inflation since its imposition in 2017 it would already be £1,310…
Murray claimed he hadn’t “seen” Tory research showing a whopping 27 new quangos have been founded since Labour came to power including the ‘Tree Planting Taskforce’ – co-conspirators can browse the rest below. The trick to deregulation is to abolish more quangos than you found…
See the rest of the new quangos below:
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”