Starmer is still facing growing pressure from his party over welfare reforms, with the Labour left naturally demanding higher taxes instead of spending cuts. Leading the charge this morning was Diane Abbott calling for a wealth tax, insisting that a 2% levy on assets over £10 million “shouldn’t have some massive effect” on incentives. Abbott’s hardly renowned for her prowess in calculus…
Labour minister Emma Reynolds was on the Today Programme shortly after Abbott, saying that as “we’ve already increased taxes by quite a substantial amount”, Labour won’t impose a wealth tax – for now:
“We’re not going to come forward for the time being. I mean, I can’t come forward on future Budgets, of course, but for the time being we are not going to come forward with a wealth tax.”
Translation: the door is still wide open on a wealth tax. A wealth tax would be yet another broken promise by Reeves, who stated unequivocally that Labour had “no plans for a wealth tax” back in August 2023. Though she also said back then she’d find it hard to raise taxes at all, and co-conspirators saw how that turned out…
A reminder:
The Adam Smith Institute’s Director of Public Affairs Maxwell Marlow said:
“With more wealthy individuals fleeing the UK than ever before, the government cannot keep plucking the golden goose. Already, 60% of all income tax receipts come from the top 10% of earners, and this high tax burden is pushing the wealthy away – a wealth tax would be the final nail in the coffin.”
Labour pledged a wealth tax in its 1974 manifesto but abandoned plans. Reeves’ predecessor Dennis Healey noted:“We had committed ourselves to a wealth tax; but in five years I found it impossible to draft one which would yield enough revenue to be worth the administrative cost and the political hassle”. Britain’s top wealth creators will be keeping their passports ready…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”