Labour hires experts to ‘modernise’ HMRC and stop people being left ‘hanging on the phone’

Published

1 year ago

April 9, 2024

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Labour has appointed an expert panel to help it “modernise” His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if it wins the next election, with the shadow chancellor pledging to stop people being “left hanging on the phone”.

Speaking to Sky News, Rachel Reeves said the panel would advise her on how to improve tax compliance and “bring in this additional money” to the government’s coffers, as well as updating the technology behind the service.

And she said the group would make recommendations on “how we can modernise the HMRC and make it a better experience for people phoning up… who are often left hanging on the phone because there’s no one answering the calls”.

The announcement comes just weeks after a U-turn from HMRC over its plans to shut its helplines for half of the year, following an outcry from the public and politicians.

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It also comes as Labour revealed how it would fill the gaps in its spending plans after the Conservatives stole two of their revenue-raising policies – the scrapping of the non-dom tax status and an extension of the windfall tax on oil and gas firms – to pay for a cut in national insurance.

Ms Reeves said the party would raise £5bn by the end of the next parliament to fund breakfast clubs for primary school children and additional appointments in the NHS by clamping down on tax avoidance and closing “loopholes” in the government’s own non-dom pledges.

Put to her that £5bn was a small fraction of public spending overall, the shadow chancellor insisted it was not “a drop in the ocean”, telling Sky News’ Tamara Cohen: “I think that will make a big difference to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across our country and that is the difference that a Labour government will bring.”

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She added: “[The] Conservative government is still not willing to properly clampdown on tax avoidance or to ensure that our non-doms are paying their fair share.

“It’s [a] Labour government that is willing to make those tough decisions and put that money where it’s needed into our frontline public services.”

Ms Reeves warned there would be “constraints in what an incoming Labour government would do”, blaming the Tories for playing “fast and loose with the public finances”.

But she insisted everything in the party’s manifesto would be “fully costed and fully funded”, adding: “People can have the certainty and the security of an economy well-run, after the chaos they’ve seen these last few years.”

Asked if any tax cuts would be on the cards with her in the Treasury, Ms Reeves said: “I want the tax burden on ordinary working people to be lower, but I won’t make any promises that I can’t say how I will keep.”

But she did reiterate Labour’s commitment to the triple lock on pensions, and hinted an emergency budget could come quickly if her party gets the keys to Number 10 and 11.

Ms Reeves confirmed her first budget would include measures to close non-dom loopholes and the windfall tax extension, and Sky News understands it will also include its policy of imposing VAT on private school fees.

“Of course… we will have to bring forward a budget,” she said. “There will also be a need for a spending review.

“But we’ll take one thing at a time. We need to win the election and then we will be able to put into practice the policies.”

Ms Reeves was also asked about the ongoing row around Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner and her living arrangements before she became an MP.

Ms Rayner is facing accusations she avoided capital gains tax after selling her property in Stockport in 2015, and falsely registering to vote there while living at her then husband’s house nearby – claims she has denied.

Asked if she had seen the tax advice given to Ms Rayner, the shadow chancellor said: “ No, because I haven’t seen the tax returns or the tax or legal advice of any of my colleagues, and I wouldn’t treat Angela Rayner different to other colleagues.

“But she has taken that advice as she is confident, and I have every faith and trust in my friend and colleague Angela Rayner.”

Politics

Trump’s tariff escalation exposes ‘deeper fractures’ in global financial system

Published

4 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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$Trump’s tariff escalation exposes ‘deeper fractures’ in global financial system$

Escalating trade tensions and renewed uncertainty in global markets are driving investors toward alternative assets, including Bitcoin and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), as concerns mount over the long-term stability of the financial system.

Global trade tensions continue pressuring investor sentiment despite US President Donald Trump announcing a 90-day pause on higher reciprocal tariffs on April 9, reverting the tariffs to the 10% baseline for most countries.

At the same time, Trump escalated his tariffs on Chinese goods from 104% to 125%, the Financial Times reported on April 9.

“President Trump’s tariff escalation marks a significant inflection point for global markets,” a move that signals “more than a trade disagreement,” said Teddy Pornprinya, co-founder of Plume — a layer-1 blockchain focused on tokenized real-world assets. He added:

“It exposes deeper fractures in the global monetary system.”

With both the US and China facing what he described as unsustainable debt levels, Pornprinya warned of increased reliance on inflationary tools, including the potential depreciation of the Chinese yuan.

“These dynamics will test the resilience of every asset class” and inspire greater adoption for tokenized credit and private yield products that “aren’t exposed to sovereign devaluation games,” he said.

The tariff fears led tokenized gold trading volume to surge to a two-year high this week, topping $1 billion for the first time since the US banking crisis in 2023, Cointelegraph reported on April 10.

Trump’s tariff escalation exposes ‘deeper fractures’ in global financial system — *Top tokenized gold assets, trading volume. Source: CoinGecko, Cex.io*

Onchain real-world assets (RWAs) also surpassed the $20-billion all-time high on April 9, with tokenized private credit representing the lion’s share, or $12.7 billion of total RWA value, according to data from RWA.xyz.

Some industry watchers said that Bitcoin’s lack of upside momentum may drive RWAs to a $50-billion all-time high before the end of 2025, as their increased liquidity will help RWAs attract a significant share of the $450-trillion global asset market.

Tariffs are “US bargaining tool,” not lasting policy shift

Despite investor concerns, analysts at crypto exchange Bitfinex said the tariff hike may not represent a long-term policy shift.

“We believe, however, that the threat of tariffs by the current US administration is a negotiating tool to be used to persuade other countries to lower tariffs on American manufactured goods and services and are unlikely to become permanent policy,” they told Cointelegraph.

Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor, also said that the tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach an agreement with China.

The tone of the negotiations may dictate the recovery of global risk assets, including the crypto market, which has a 70% chance to bottom by June 2025 before recovering, Nansen analysts predicted.

Magazine: Bitcoin ATH sooner than expected? XRP may drop 40%, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 23–29

Politics

Crypto’s growing footprint: UK regulator sounds alarm over stablecoin risks

Published

6 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Crypto’s growing footprint: UK regulator sounds alarm over stablecoin risks

United Kingdom regulators are increasingly concerned about the impact of stablecoins and the broader crypto industry on the country’s financial system and monetary stability.

During Financial Policy Committee meetings held on April 4 and 8, regulators noted that while the current “interconnectedness of unbacked crypto asset markets with the real economy and financial sector is growing but remains relatively limited,” stablecoins and crypto markets have expanded significantly in the past year, drawing heightened regulatory attention.

The UK, its central bank and its local regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, have been developing frameworks for stablecoins to ensure financial resilience. The committee claims to have determined the factors that make a stablecoin resilient:

“A key determinant of the resilience of stablecoins was the liquidity, credit and market risks of their backing assets, which were in place to ensure that redemptions can be met in a timely manner at par, even in periods of stress.“

The committee raised alarm over the “greater issuance of sterling offshore stablecoins with inappropriate backing assets.” This has implications for UK financial markets and “even with appropriate regulation, greater use of stablecoins denominated in foreign currencies could make some economies vulnerable to currency substitution,” the committee said.

Cryptocurrencies, United Kingdom, Stablecoin — *Bank of England. Source:* *Wikimedia*

Currency substitution risks spark concern

Committee members are worried that if stablecoin use were to move beyond crypto settlements, it could result in “implications for retail and wholesale cross-border payments.” In retail flows, stablecoin use by households and small and medium-sized enterprises could, for cross-border payments, “result in currency substitution,” increasing counterparty risk.

The statement followed reports about growing stablecoin adoption not limited to crypto remittances in emerging markets, especially in Africa. A recent report from Chainalysis found that stablecoins now make up nearly half of all transaction volume in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Similarly, a late 2024 report suggested that a number of emerging economies across Africa have the potential to become digital asset hubs. Ben Caselin, chief marketing officer of Johannesburg-based crypto exchange VALR, told Cointelegraph at the time:

“South Africa is the entryway to the rest of Africa with a good rule of law and independent judiciary. It’s easy to open a company in South Africa.”

Still, reports of similar trends in developed economies with easily accessible financial infrastructure are scarce. Experts often point to the unavailability of banking services and unstable local fiat currencies as the reason why developing countries — from Africa in particular — are eager to adopt dollar-based stablecoins and crypto.

UK is not alone in worrying

The United Kingdom is in good company in worrying about the impact of stablecoins and the broader crypto industry on monetary stability. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) recently warned that crypto will increasingly threaten traditional financial markets’ stability as the industry grows and becomes more entwined with conventional finance players. ESMA’s executive director, Natasha Cazenave said:

“We cannot rule out that future sharp drops in crypto prices could have knock-on effects on our financial system.”

Local regulators are already acting on those concerns. In late March, the European Union’s insurance authority proposed a blanket rule that would mandate insurance firms to maintain capital equal to the value of their crypto holdings as part of a measure to mitigate risks for policyholders.

Magazine: Ridiculous ‘Chinese Mint’ crypto scam, Japan dives into stablecoins: Asia Express

Politics

Home secretary denies ‘watering down’ grooming gangs response following backlash

Published

12 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Home secretary denies 'watering down' grooming gangs response following backlash

The home secretary has denied the government is watering down its response to child grooming gangs after it was accused of dropping plans for local inquiries.

Yvette Cooper announced at the beginning of the year that “victim-centred, locally-led inquiries” would take place in five areas after the issue caught the attention of tech billionaire Elon Musk.

But this week, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips did not provide an update on the reviews and instead said local authorities would be able to access a £5m fund to support any work they wanted to carry out.

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Her statement led to accusations that the government was diluting the importance of the local inquiries by giving councils the choice over how to spend the money.

Asked by Anna Jones on Sky News whether the government was “watering down” its response, Ms Cooper said: “No, completely the opposite.

“What we’re doing is increasing the action we’re taking on this vile crime.”

The home secretary pointed to the rapid audit that is being carried out by Baroness Louise Casey, which will bring together the data gathered so far on grooming gangs and consider the lessons that should be learned at a national level.

She added: “Most important of all, what we’re doing is we’re increasing the police investigations, because these are dangerous perpetrators and again, they should be behind bars.”

Demands for a national inquiry into the scandal – in which girls as young as 11 were groomed and raped across a number of towns and cities in England over a decade ago – grew louder this year after Mr Musk accused Labour of failing to act on the issue on his social media platform X.

The government refused to hold a national inquiry, citing the work carried out by Professor Alexis Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse that looked into abuse by organised groups following multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010-2014.

However, it did commit to holding local inquiries in five areas backed by £5m in funding and advised by Tom Crowther KC.

‘Political mess’

But ministers are facing a backlash following Ms Phillips’ statement in the Commons on Tuesday – made an hour before parliament rose for Easter recess – in which she said the government would take a “flexible approach” by allowing five councils to launch victims’ panels or locally led audits.

Labour MPs angry with government decision grooming gangs

Mhari Aurora

Political correspondent

@MhariAurora

With about an hour until the House of Commons rose for Easter recess, the government announced it was taking a more “flexible” approach to the local grooming gang inquiries.

Safeguarding minister Jess Philips argued this was based on experience from certain affected areas, and that the government is funding new police investigations to re-open historic cases.

Sky News presenter and former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Trevor Philips called the move “utterly shameful” and claimed it was a political decision.

One Labour MP told Sky News: “Some people are very angry. I despair. I don’t disagree with many of our decisions but we just play to Reform – someone somewhere needs sacking.”

The government insists party political misinformation is fanning the flames of frustration in Labour, and that they not watering down the inquiries – on the contrary, they say are increasing the action being taken – , but while many Labour MPs have one eye on Reform in the rearview mirror, any accusations of being soft on grooming gangs only provides political ammunition to their adversaries.

One Labour MP told Sky News the issue had turned into a “political mess” and that they were being called “grooming sympathisers”.

On the update from Ms Phillips on Tuesday, they said it might have been the “right thing to do” but that it was “horrible politically”.

“We are all getting so much abuse. It’s just political naivety in the extreme.”

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said yesterday that she was “absolutely astonished that Labour has dropped what it said it would do in January”.

“They are clearly uncomfortable with having inquiries that are looking into this issue,”she said.

“They said that they’ll have a pot of money for councils to bid in, but why would a council bid for money to investigate itself?

“We need something that is national. We need a statutory inquiry so we can compel witnesses, and I’m going to make sure that we force another vote.”

‘We will leave no stone unturned’

Ms Phillips later defended her decision, saying there was “far too much party political misinformation about the action that is being taken when everyone should be trying to support victims and survivors”.

“We are funding new police investigations to re-open historic cases, providing national support for locally led inquiries and action, and Louise Casey… is currently reviewing the nature, scale and ethnicity of grooming gangs offending across the country.

“We will not hesitate to go further, unlike the previous government, who showed no interest in this issue over 14 years and did nothing to progress the recommendations from the seven year national inquiry when they had the chance.

“We will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of justice for victims and will be unrelenting in our crackdown on sick predators and perpetrators who prey on vulnerable children.”