While Labour continues to reverse its pre-election definition of “working people” to justify tax hikes, the Adam Smith Insitute offers another path for raising money from Capital Gains Tax. Scrap it…
Statistical modelling in the ASI’s new report suggests that national income would grow by £25.08 billion thanks to increased saving if CGT was gradually phased out. Further revenue increases from higher investment and productivity would more than replace revenue lost from CGT and boost growth…
Without Capital Gains Tax national income would, according to the modelling, rise by 0.9% annually, in perpetuity. That’s thanks to a 2.4% increase in national savings as a percentage of national income. Bean-counters will know that two-thirds of the lost revenue from scrapping the tax would be offset by increased revenue from other taxation as a result. Multiplier effects to growth would more than compensate for lost Treasury revenue while every family would be £1,000 a year better off…
Reeves should rule out a rise in CGT in the budget, and better still scrap it altogether. Talk about a rabbit…
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:
Compare that to now, days before the budget.
Spot the difference? They did promise change…
Labour’s muddled definition of “working people” has now shifted three times in a week, adding to the farcical spectacle surrounding their manifesto tax pledges. Yesterday, Keir Starmer said that Britons earning income from shares or property aren’t “working people.” Sparking fresh fears of looming tax hikes for investors…
In a failed attempt to clarify the “working people” line, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, made the morning media rounds. Speaking on the Today Programme, he was asked six times a simple question: “Do landlords work?” And six times, he dodged the question, hiding behind a stream of evasive waffle instead:
This won’t be music to the ears of 2.82 million private landlords in the UK, who now brace for the potential of steep tax hikes in the upcoming budget. Labour has taken the “campaign in poetry, govern in prose” approach to whole new level…
Businesses continue to vote with their feet and shut up shop, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down, even before the budget is unveiled. So far this month, over 1,600 members’ voluntary liquidations have been recorded, according to filings with The Gazette. More than double the level for the whole of October last year. Business owners are heading for the hills, taking UK job prospects with them…

The uptick in liquidations has been blamed on Reeves’ looming capital gains tax hike and expected cuts to business asset disposal relief. Keeping capital and business in Labour’s Britain is far from attractive – and this is before any tax hikes have been formally announced. Imagine the exodus after Halloween…
New data just released by HMRC shows Capital Gains Tax receipts have shot up by 16.3% in the third quarter ahead of the budget. Coming in at £572 million from July to September – compared to £492 million in 2023. Realise your gains, realise your gains…
September’s CGT receipts hit £192 million, which is the highest figure since 2008. Inheritance Tax receipts, boosted by frozen thresholds, hit £4.3 billion between April and September, a 10% increase on the year before. Evidence shows that people actually give up the ghost to avoid the death tax…
Starmer’s personal firefighting over budget speculation on an incoming Capital Gains hike hasn’t worked, then. More evidence of the Laffer Curve in action will likely present itself if Reeves chooses to hike CGT in the budget – HMRC itself predicts a 10% hike would lower revenues by £2 billion. Labour’s tax crosshairs are clearly set on growth-promoting wealth…
It’s more bad news for those hoping for economic growth. A new report from Liz Truss’ Growth Commission reveals that the upcoming Autumn Budget could create a staggering £84 billion “black hole” in public finances. Proposed tax raids on capital gains, inheritance, national insurance, and several other areas are set to see the UK’s GDP growth per capita drop by an alarming 8.8% by 2030. Leaving every person in the UK £3,788 poorer than they would be without Labour’s heavy-handed approach…
While Rachel Reeves points to her own “black hole”—currently *checks notes* at £40 billion—as justification for these tax raids, she’s creating a much larger problem for herself. The proposed tax increases would likely overshadow the modest economic boost expected from Labour’s planning reforms, which are projected to add just 0.8% to GDP per capita by 2030. Reeves has been warned…