While Labour scrambles to clarify who exactly they meant by “working people” in their manifesto’s tax pledges, one shrewd businessman knew exactly what was coming. Anthony Bamford, top Tory donor and controller of JCB, distributed a £300 million ($389 million) dividend last year, signing off just weeks before Labour came to power. Cashing out before the Labour could cash in…
With JCB profits surging 43% to an impressive £620.7 million in 2023, Bamford has now climbed to the rank of the world’s 198th-richest person. His timely move will mean the Bamford dynasty avoids any upcoming punitive taxes that Labour is eyeing. A reminder: according to the OBR, around 60% of income tax revenue comes from the top 10% of earners and 30% from the top 1%. As the Laffer curve bends, other businessmen will wish they had done the same…
Once again the No 10 communications operation is breaking down. Starmer told broadcast journalists yesterday night that someone who works and also gets income from shares or property “wouldn’t come within my definition” of a “working person.” Today his spokesman clarified that “a person who holds a small amount of savings in stocks and shares still counts as a working person.” Guido cast his mind back to before 5th July, when Labour made a specific pledge in its manifesto: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people”…
These are the definitions of “working people” the public was given prior to the election:
- Reeves: “Working people are people who go out to work and work for their incomes. Sort of by definition, really, working people are those people who go out and work and earn their money through hard work. Some people, who go out to work haven’t been able to build up savings. Many other people who go out to work, have had to run down their savings. But there are people who do have savings, who have been able to save up and those are working people as well.“
- Starmer: “Yes, I’m a working person, I come within my own definition of a working person, which is earning my living, paying my taxes and knowing what it means to save money.”
- Reeves: “Working people are people who get their income from going out to work everyday, and also pensioners that have worked all their lives and are now in retirement, drawing down on their pensions.“
Compare that to now, days before the budget.
- Starmer: “I have in my mind the sort of people that go out, earn their living, have maybe a bit of savings, but not huge savings. And there when things get a bit tough, they can’t simply get a cheque book out and sort of write their way out of the problems that they’re facing. It’s those people that are working hard, saving where they can. Of course, I think most people try to do that where they can, although it’s difficult. But [it’s] the sort of people that have the anxiety I suppose in the bottom of their stomach that should something happen to them or their family, they know they can’t simply write a cheque to get themselves out of any future difficulty. They’re the people I have most in mind when I make the decisions I make.”
- Bryant: “[Working people] has become a shorthand in political circles for the people who were particularly disadvantaged in the cost of living crisis…that suddenly meant that people had to find an extra £300 a month for their mortgages so those are the people that we didn’t want to hit, so we wanted to say in the general election we don’t want to take more tax from you and that’s what we said.”
- Kinnock: “Obviously the definitions have to be seen in the round and that’s what’s going to be put on the table.”
Spot the difference? They did promise change…
Co-conspirators may remember Sadiq Khan’s vanity jolly last month to New York with the C40 Cities “Climate Leadership Group.” Khan claims he went to promote “London as a leading destination for business, tourism and sport.” He actually went on a boat ride to talk about voles…
Guido fired a few FOIs City Hall’s way to see how much the taxpayer was paying this time round. The GLA spent £3,683 on flights to New York for some of Khan’s retinue of a whopping eight people. Once they landed they managed to rack up a £9,060 bill on hotel rooms, which the GLA claims “is reflective of the very high demand for hotel rooms in New York when the UN General Assembly is in session.” You can feel the British public’s sympathy pouring out as we speak…
Khan and his crew were spread across three different hotels. Guido leaves it to co-conspirators to guess which the Mayor stayed in…
Above is the NH Collection on Madison Avenue. Prices range from $400 to $1,800 a night..
The Hilton Garden Inn by Central Park. Prices from $500 per night upwards…
The Aura Hotel on Times Square. From about $335 per night…
Khan’s hotel rooms, as well as his business class flight tickets, were paid for by the C40 Cities group, of which Khan is a co-chairman. That’s the same organisation of whose main proposal is to limit the public’s air travel to “one short-haul return flight (less than 1500 km) every 2 years per person.” Khan’s already exceeded his two-year quota by 3.7 times with his free 5,570km flight to the Big Apple. Poor Sadiq will have to sit in London until 2032 to compensate…
Entries in the comments…
Lobby hacks are this week still asking Starmer’s spokesman about Sue Gray’s fake envoy job. Surprise surprise, no updates…
When Gray resigned back at the start of the month the PM said “he was ‘delighted’ she would stay by his side in her new role.’” Let’s see how that’s going…
Guido hears from Downing Street that Sue is hilariously “still deciding if she is doing the envoy job.” In the meantime she has no desk, no contract, and no internal IT. So much for sitting by Keir’s side…
Guido asked a simple question of Jenrick at his speech just now: “How do you respond to Farage’s claim that you have no personality?” Jenrick responded: There’s a reason he’s talking about me and not Badenoch…
“I think he’s rattled. Why is Nigel Farage speaking of me and not my opponent in this contest? Because he doesn’t want me to be leader of the Conservative Party. I might not be on the stage at the Reform Conference dancing to Frankie Valli and punching balloons but I’ve got a track record. I resigned on a matter of principle on the very issues that he has stood for… He knows that if I am leader of this party he will be in retirement and that all small C conservatives will return to our fold. That is what I offer, that’s why he doesn’t want me to be leader of this party, that’s why he wants my opponent to win.”
Strong words against Badenoch and straddling mockery of Nigel with an attempt to stress that they agree on policy. No attempt to claim that Robert does actually have a personality…
Jenrick’s message is clear: Farage wants Badenoch to win in his goal of destroying the Tories. Will it be enough to win over the members?
