Burnham has had varied views on tax policy. It’s almost as if he doesn’t know what he is talking about and will say anything…
When he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury he defended the lower capital gains tax rates introduced by the Blair government. He said that Labour’s reforms represented “the right balance between encouraging enterprise & investment, maintaining the UK’s international competitiveness and delivering a modern and fair tax system.” A sound Blairite…
Speaking in the Commons he said:
“rates of capital gains tax in 1997 were considerably higher than they are today and higher than they will be after revisions are made. Secondly, at 18%, 18 pence in the pound, that stands good comparison with capital gains rates of taxation around the world. It is hard to make a statement about direct comparability because lots of other systems do use differential rates according to the assets being disposed of, but, having checked this out in detail, I am confident in saying that our rates stand good comparison.”
Burnham’s latest pitch is to tax wealth. He said last year in a characteristic statement: “We’ve overtaxed people’s work and we’ve undertaxed people’s assets and wealth and that balance should be put more right.” Specifically, he said in 2021 he would raise “a range of wealth taxes – such as a higher rate of capital gains tax.” Britain already has the highest wealth taxes in the OECD – pushing them higher would be cataclysmic…
A spokesman for the low tax campaign Cut My Tax said: “Given Mr. Burnham attacked the high CGT rates maintained by the Tories and praised Blair’s lower rates for promoting enterprise & investment, it’s rather strange that he now promotes a CGT hike that will both discourage investment & cut the tax take.” Dr Laffer would like a word…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”