Scrapping non-dom tax status ‘an utter humiliation’ for government, Labour claims
Scrapping the non-dom tax status for wealthy foreign nationals is “an utter humiliation for this government”, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said.
“The last budget of this parliament – they’ve had 14 years and they use this moment to close a non-dom tax loophole that everyone has been aware of for years,” Ms Reeves told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
“If they had done this when we first announced it we could have brought in billions of pounds extra to either keep taxes down for working people” or invest in other priorities, she said.
In last Wednesday’s budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt committed to cutting the tax status for non-doms – short for non-domiciled individuals, who live in the UK but whose permanent home is abroad.
The tax break allows people with non-dom status to only pay tax on money earned in the UK, meaning their overseas income and wealth are not subject to UK tax for up to 15 years. But the chancellor has cut that to four years, a move expected to raise £2.7bn a year towards tax cuts.
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Asked why she was not praising Mr Hunt for taking an idea she supports, Ms Reeves said: “Because they could have done it years ago and we could have reduced those NHS hospital waiting lists…
“Imagine what good could have been done if the chancellor and prime minister had done this years ago.
“So it is a humiliation that they’re doing it at this late stage. They’ve run out of ideas, they’re quickly running out of road.”
Pic: PA
Asked if Labour would stick to the government’s spending plans, Ms Reeves said there were “areas where we would do more” and noted she has already announced “a small number of targeted tax increases to provide an immediate injection of cash into public services”.
These include the plan to make private schools pay VAT and business rates, and expanding the oil and gas company windfall tax.
She said Labour has fiscal rules she will enforce with an “iron discipline” which are “slightly different” to what the government has in place.
The aim is to “boost our long-term growth and productivity”, which is “absolutely key and has been the missing ingredient in the government’s economic approach the last 14 years”.
She said our economy “would be £140bn bigger” with a similar approach to other OECD countries.
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Pressed on where else she would raise revenue for her party’s priorities, Ms Reeves said she would go through the budget documents to work out where else money could be raised.
“Those pledges very much stand,” she said. “They are national priorities and they are Labour’s priorities as well, and we will now make sure we identify the funding streams, because everything in our manifesto will be fully funded.”
She repeated her pledge there would be no additional borrowing to pay for day-to-day expenditure.
“I’ve been very clear about the fiscal rules to get debt falling as a share of GDP, to pay for day-to-day expenditure through tax receipts and there won’t be anything in our manifesto that breaks those rules.”
Politics
Richard Rice says Reform UK made ‘right judgement’ to suspend MP over allegations of bullying
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice has said it was “right” to suspend the MP at the centre of bullying and threat allegations.
The party announced on Friday that they had reported Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe to police following allegations of bullying made by two women and threats made against Reform’s chair.
Many have questioned the timing of the announcement, as it came the day after Mr Lowe appeared to question Nigel Farage‘s leadership of the party. Mr Lowe has denied all the allegations.
Mr Tice was asked why the incidents have only come to light now, when complaint were made to police in December.
Rupert Lowe denies the allegations against him. Pic: PA
He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “There’s been a variety of instances and you have to make difficult judgements through the process.
“But of course it’s unfortunate. Of course it’s difficult.
“But there are these allegations of bullying by two separate female members of staff to the parliamentary authorities. Those clearly have to be dealt with in the proper, responsible way.”
He added: “Rupert has been doing some great work on a variety of important issues, but ultimately, if you can’t work with someone, if the situation becomes impossible, which regrettably… then you have to say, this is not going to end well.
“And so we made the right judgement.”
Mr Tice also pointed out that if the party had brushed the incident “under the carpet” or tried to cover it up, then “everyone would’ve been raging”.
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Reform UK row explained
Asked if the situation was “fishy” due to the timing of the party’s pronouncement, Mr Tice strongly disagreed.
“The reality is, behind the scenes, there have been a number of difficulties and challenges, and you get to the point where you say, enough’s enough,” he said.
Mr Farage wrote in the Telegraph overnight, saying the party “did our best to keep a lid on things but, in the end, containment strategies invariably fail”.
Mr Tice said an incident with party chair Zia Yusuf recently was the catalyst for taking action against Mr Lowe.
Mr Lowe has vehemently denied the claims against him, and said he was targeted for challenging the way the party was being run.
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Posting on social media just before Mr Tice’s interview, Mr Lowe said this included his outspoken stance on wanting to deport all illegal migrants.
He said: “I have been warned by those at the top of Reform about my position on deportations. As you likely know from reading my extensive output on the subject, I did not listen to a word said.
“We need deportations, and lots of them.
“I make no apologies for stating that.”
Politics
UK has no plans for conscription – but future decisions will respond to ‘new reality’, says minister
The UK is not considering introducing conscription to ready the country for a potential war – but decisions may be needed in the future to respond to the “new reality” we are now living in, a minister has told Sky News.
In an interview with Trevor Phillips, Latvian President Edgars Rinkeviks has urged European countries to follow his country’s lead and “absolutely” introduce conscription, conceding the continent is “quite weak” militarily.
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‘Debate’ in Latvia about introducing conscription for women
Asked if the UK government is considering introducing the measure to boost the armed forces, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said it is important the UK does not find itself operating under “old assumptions” – and that it may be “decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality”.
He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are not considering conscription, but of course we have announced a major increase in defence expenditure.
“We do have to recognise that the world has changed. The phrase ‘step up’ is used a lot. Europe does have to step up in terms of its own defence.
“President Trump isn’t actually the first president to say that, but he said it more loudly and with more force than his predecessors – so, I think we have got to recognise that moment.”
‘UK cannot cling to old assumptions’
He added: “When the world is changing as fast as it is, it’s important that we don’t cling on to old assumptions.
“I think the prime minister has played a tremendous role in recent weeks in responding to that situation and explaining it to the public.
“That is why the decision on increasing defence expenditure was needed.
“It may be why other decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality, and that we don’t find ourselves caught operating under the same assumption as we used to in the past when the situation has changed.”
‘Battlefield is changing’
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP but has not set out when this will be achieved. Ministers say a defence review to be published this spring will set out a “roadmap” to it.
The number is much lower than the US president has demanded NATO members spend on defence, with Mr Trump saying they should all be spending 5% – an amount last seen during the Cold War.
Asked if the “new reality” involved a bigger army, Mr McFadden said ministers were waiting for the conclusion of the review.
But he added: “One thing is for sure, you would not spend money today on the same things as you would 10 years ago.
“The experience of the three years of the war in Ukraine has shown just how fast the battlefield is changing in terms of cyber, drones, the use of intelligence.”
The Conservatives’ first policy announcement of last year’s general election campaign was that the party would introduce a new form of mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds.
Asked if the Tories still stood by the plan which was in their manifesto, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are obviously not going to write our manifesto now, so I am not going to recommit to things in the previous manifesto.
“We’ll need to do the thinking properly. I am not going to speculate four years ahead of the election.
“I don’t think it was really exactly conscription that was being proposed, it was a National Citizen Service which is a bit different.
“The idea of getting younger people to do voluntary work and perform useful tasks is not a bad idea.”
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‘Right time’ to think about conscription
Last year, Britain’s former top NATO commander told Sky News it was time to “think the unthinkable” and consider introducing conscription.
General Sir Richard Sherriff, ex-deputy supreme allied commander of the military organisation, said: “I think we need to get over many of the cultural hang-ups and assumptions, and frankly think the unthinkable.
“I think we need to go further and look carefully at conscription.”
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