The Treasury got treated to a classic-of-the-genre stunt by the opposition this morning as Labour highlighted Rishi’s 15 tax rises* with a visit by Southside staff… dressed as Rishi Sunak. Brandishing 15 tax bills that increased in size one by one, Labour staff posed for photos in front of the small smattering of press. Just one problem – their resemblance to Rishi was somewhat lacking…
It’s nice Starmer’s found a useful role for Richard Burgon…
*2020 Corporation Tax increase; 2020 Council Tax measures; 2020 Reduction in entrepreneurs’ relief for CGT; 2021 Corporation tax increase; 2021 Income tax personal allowance freeze; 2021 inheritance tax threshold; 2021 CHT annual exempt allowance freeze; 2021 VAT registration threshold for business freeze; 2021 health and social care levy; 2021 dividend tax; 2021 freeze in starting rate band for savings tax; 2021 freeze in adult ISA subscription limit; 2021 Income tax basis period reform; 2021 council tax measures; 2022 freeze in student loan repayment threshold.
The Tory manifesto made six straightforward, clear-cut and verifiable promises. The promise not to put up National Insurance was there in black and white, just above the Prime Minister’s signature. Given it is going up today it is probably a bit embarrassing to leave it on the Conservatives.com site…
Two weeks ago, Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden proclaimed that taxes have reached a “high water mark” amid a cost of living crisis that’s seen the Treasury’s penny-pinching rise to a 28 year high. When asked by Sir Keir at PMQs today whether Boris still believes he and the Chancellor are “tax-cutting Conservatives”, the PM boldly replied “Yes, Mr Speaker, I certainly do!”. Guido presumes, therefore, that No. 10 & 11 will shortly be rejecting any suggestion of an online sales tax…
The online sales tax was first proposed by the Treasury in response to the proportion of retail sales conducted online rising seven-fold between 2006 and March 2020, accelerated by lockdown. In February the Treasury launched a public consultation on the proposals, which Guido has now spotted admits the tax would pile even more pressure onto hard-pressed consumers:
“the cost of an OST could be passed on to customers at a high rate.”
The IEA puts simply:
“Given the extent of competition in today’s retailing sector, the costs of the online sales tax (and the administration costs incurred by businesses) would be passed on to consumers, who have arguably received quite enough hits in terms of higher prices recently.”
Guido’s sure that regardless of the Treasury consultation any Tory government serious about tackling a cost of living crisis and reducing consumer costs wouldn’t take these plans any further…
Not for the first time, it’s Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh who’s provided the standout fireworks from Rishi’s treasury select committee appearance. With Sunak once again flaunting his supposed low-tax credentials, McDonagh repeatedly blasted the Chancellor for whacking up the tax burden to unprecedented levels – at one point even asking Sunak if he thinks the public “are stupid”. Which seems excessive, although given her line of attack, McDonagh needs to remind everyone she’s a member of the opposition – and not, say, the Tory backbenches – somehow…
Rishi: “…I think you’re talking about through to the end of the Parliament, we’ve already had that conversation.”
Siobhan: “With respect, you don’t decide what questions we ask, or how often we ask them. Let’s do the maths though. When you add up all the proposed tax increases, and subtract your fuel duty, income tax, and national insurance pledges, the net result is a 3.3% rise in the tax to GDP ratio between 2019-20, and 26-27.”
Rishi: “No it’s a reflection of the fact that public spending is also, over that period, going to rise by over 2 percentage points of GDP… Government has to pay for the things it’s spending money on… rather than cut public spending, we’re raising the taxes to pay for it.”
McDonagh then went on to question the timings of Rishi’s proposed 1% cut to income tax, suggesting it was a cynical election ploy. Maybe it is, although it’s still pretty good politics. Labour are probably going to have to vote against a tax cut now after all…
In December, Guido pointed out Richard Burgon had fallen victim to continually double counting when opining how to solve all of society’s problems. According to Richard, a top 10% wealth tax would raise £69 billion, which he would spend on, amongst other things: creating a ‘Social Emergency Fund’, ending the cost of living crisis, end people going cold, end hunger, cost future vaccine rollouts, pay for 150 new hospitals, eradicate homelessness, give nurses a “proper pay rise”, increase Universal Credit by £20 and invest in social care. Among other things…
It now seems it’s not just Guido poo-pooing this Burgon’s one-stop fiscal magic wand. Fellow lefty loon Howard Beckett, of Unite fame, yesterday tweeted that taxing the wealth of the UK’s billionaires at 3% would raise almost £60 billion – just £9 billion less than Burgon’s 10% wealth raid.
There are 171 billionaires in the UK with a total wealth of £560bl. Taxing their wealth over £10ml at just 3% would raise almost £60bl.
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) March 24, 2022
Stop the tax increases on workers. Tax the billionaires.
Aside from all this being based on the presumption that billionaires will just stay and fill in their HMRC returns, rather than sail off to Monaco aboard their yachts, that’s a huge difference. Guido won’t labour the discrepancy too much, though perhaps they should get Diane to have a look over their fag packet calculations…
As Rishi prepares to stand up tomorrow and confirm he’s raiding your payslip in the name of ‘fiscal conservatism’, he’ll be insisting he’s going to crack down on wasteful government spending. Guido thought it was worth pointing out where some of that spending is going. Here’s a selection of Guido’s reports on Whitehall waste from just the last year…
- Public Sector’s Highest-Paid Diversity Officer Earns More Than PM
- NHS Hiring 42 New Managers on Salaries Up to £270,000
- Whitehall’s Latest £400,000 Diversity & Inclusion Hiring Spree
- NHS Hiring Even More £60,000 Equality and Inclusion Managers
- NHS’s Latest Diversity & Equality Hiring Spree
- DWP Civil Servants to Receive Race Lecture During Working Hours
- Civil Service’s Crystal Healing Sessions
Endless cash poured into pointless woke nonsense, time and time again. If the Treasury finds it so difficult to cut spending, surely here is a useful place to start.
