Sir Keir Starmer denies waging ‘war against middle Britain’ with budget
Sir Keir Starmer has denied misleading the public in the general election after hinting at tax rises for those who own shares and assets.
Labour’s election-winning manifesto promised it would not “increase taxes on working people” – but it was not made clear who exactly who is considered a “working person”.
Asked by Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby last week whether he would classify a working person as someone whose income derived from assets such as shares or property, the prime minister said: “Well, they wouldn’t come within my definition.”
It has led some critics to accuse the prime minister of targeting the middle class ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget next week through potential hikes to capital gains tax, national insurance raised for employers, or inheritance tax.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her budget on Wednesday
Quizzed by Rigby at a news conference in Samoa for the Commonwealth summit on Saturday, Sir Keir denied “plotting a war against middle Britain”.
“What we’re doing is two things in the budget,” he said.
“The first is fixing the foundations, which is dealing with the inheritance that we’ve got, including the £22bn black hole.”
The prime minister was referencing Ms Reeves’ repeated claim that the Conservatives left the new government with a £22bn shortfall, requiring them to make “tough decisions”.
“In the past, the last 14 years, leaders have walked past those problems, created fictions and I’m not prepared to do that,” he added.
“And having fixed the foundations, we’re going to rebuild our country.”
Read more:
Analysis: Labour’s muddle with messaging
Are Starmer and Reeves on the same page with budget?
He said doing so entailed “a very clear plan” to ensure people across the UK “are better off”, that their “living standards go up” and to ensure people have the public services they are “entitled to and deserve”.
He said part of the last pledge was to “make sure that our NHS is not just back on its feet, but fit for the future”.
Asked if he had misled the public during his campaign by not revealing there would be significant tax rises in Labour’s first budget, Sir Keir said: “No – we were very clear about the tax rises that we would necessarily have to make up.
“We were really clear in the manifesto and in the campaign that we wouldn’t be increasing taxes on working people and spelt out what we meant by that in terms of income tax, in terms of NICs [national insurance contributions] and in terms of VAT, and we intend to keep the promises that we made in our manifesto.”
Sir Keir and Ms Reeves have both regularly warned the public that Labour’s first budget in 14 years will be “painful” and include “tough decisions” – rhetoric the prime minister repeated on Saturday.
Rigby has predicted taxes will be going up beyond what the prime minister said in the Labour manifesto.
But after interviewing him this week, a Number 10 spokesperson clarified that those with a small amount of savings in stocks, shares or an ISA are still considered by the prime minister to be a “working person”.
Rather, Sir Keir was talking about people who “primarily get their income from assets,” they said.
Rigby said: “What does it all mean? Well, I think that it could be that raises in capital gains tax are on the cards now.”
The budget is set to take place at 12.30pm on Wednesday 30 October.
Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD
Technology is advancing at the speed of light today more than ever. We have surpassed Moore’s law — computational power is doubling every six months rather than every two years — while regulations are, and have been, playing catchup.
The EU Artificial Intelligence Act just came into force in August 2024 and is already falling behind. It did not consider AI agents and is still wrestling with generative AI (GenAI) and foundation models. Article 28b was added to the act in June 2023 after the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 and the flourishing of chatbot deployments. It was not on their radar when lawmakers initially drafted the act in April 2021.
As we move more into robotics and the use of virtual reality devices, a “new paradigm of AI architectures” will be developed, addressing the limitations of GenAI to create robots and virtual devices that can reason the world, unlike GenAI models. Maybe spending time drafting a new article on GenAI was not time well spent.
Furthermore, technology regulations are quite dichotomized. There are regulations on AI, like the EU AI Act; Web3, like Markets in Crypto-Assets; and the security of digital information, like the EU Cybersecurity Act and The Digital Operational Resilience Act.
This dichotomy is cumbersome for users and businesses to follow. Moreover, it does not align with how solutions and products are developed. Every solution integrates many technologies, while each technology component has separate regulations.
It might be time to reconsider the way we regulate technology.
A comprehensive approach
Tech companies have been pushing the boundaries with cutting-edge technologies, including Web3, AI, quantum computing and others yet to emerge. Other industries are following suit in the experimentation and implementation of these technologies.
Everything is digital, and every product integrates several technologies. Think of the Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest. They have hardware, goggles, AI, biometric technology, cloud computing, cryptography, digital wallets and more, and they will soon be integrated with Web3 technology.
A comprehensive approach to regulation would be the most suitable approach for the following principal reasons.
A full-system solution
Most, if not all, solutions require the integration of several emerging technologies. If we have separate guidelines and regulations for each technology, how could we ensure the product/service is compliant? Where does one rule start and the other end?
Recent: Animoca Brands revenue climbs as AI cuts costs by 12%
Separate guidelines would probably introduce more complexity, errors and misinterpretations, which eventually might result in more harm than good. If the implementation of technologies is all-encompassing and comprehensive, the approach to regulating it should also be.
Different technologies support each other’s weaknesses
All technologies have strengths and weaknesses, and often, the strengths of one technology can support the shortcomings of the other.
For example, AI can support Web3 by enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of smart contract execution and blockchain security and monitoring. In contrast, blockchain technology can assist in manifesting “responsible AI,” as blockchain is everything that AI is not — transparent, traceable, trustworthy and tamper-free.
When AI supports Web3 and vice versa, we implement a comprehensive, safe, secure and trustworthy solution. Would these solutions be AI-compliant or Web3-compliant? With this solution, it would be challenging to dichotomize compliance. The solution should be compliant and adhere to all guidelines/policies. It would be best if these guidelines/policies encompass all technologies, including their integration.
A proactive approach
We need proactive regulation. Many of the regulation proposals, across all regions, seem to be reactions to changes we know about today and don’t go far enough in thinking about how to provide frameworks for what might come five or 10 years down the line.
If, for example, we already know that there will be a “new paradigm of AI architectures,” probably in the next five years, then why not start thinking today, not in 5 years, how to regulate it? Or better yet, find a regulatory framework that would apply no matter how technology evolves.
Think about responsible innovation. Responsible innovation, simplistically, means making new technologies work for society without causing more problems than they solve. In other words: “Do good, do no harm.”
Responsible innovation
Responsible innovation principles are designed to span all technologies, not just AI. These principles recognize that all technologies can have unintended consequences on users, bystanders and society, and that it is the responsibility of the companies and developers creating those technologies to identify and mitigate those risks.
Responsible innovation principles are overarching and international and apply to any technology that exists today and will evolve in the future. This could be the basis for technology regulation. Still, companies, regardless of regulation, should understand that innovating responsibly instills trust in users, which will translate to mainstream adoption.
Truth in Technology Act
The Securities Act of 1933, also known as the “truth in securities” law, was created to protect investors from fraud and misrepresentation and restore public confidence in the stock market as a response to the stock market crash of 1929.
At the core of the act lie honesty and transparency, the essential ingredients to instill public trust in the stock market, or in anything for that matter.
This act has withstood the test of time — an “evergreen” law. Securities trading and the financial industry have become more digital and more technological, but the core principles of this act still apply and will continue to.
Based on the principles of responsible innovation, we could design a “Truth in Technology Act,” which would instill public trust in technology, internationally, now and in the future. Fundamentally, we seek these products and services to be safe, secure, ethical, privacy-preserving, accurate, easy to understand, auditable, transparent and accountable. These values are international across regions, industries and technologies, and since technology knows no boundaries, neither should regulations.
Innovation may create value, but it may also extract or destroy it. Regulation helps limit the latter two types of innovation, while well-designed regulation may enable the first kind to survive and flourish. A global collaboration may find ways to incentivize innovation that creates value for the good of the global economy and society.
It might be time for a Truth in Technology Act — an international, comprehensive, evergreen regulation for the good of the citizens of the world.
Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Asset manager REX-Osprey is seeking to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to hold the Movement Network’s native token, MOVE, according to a March 10 announcement.
The filing comes as Movement, a layer-2 (L2) blockchain network, launches its public mainnet beta, Movement said.
It is the latest example of a fund sponsor filing to list an ETF comprising an alternative cryptocurrency, or “altcoin.”
“Traditional investors have expressed keen interest in gaining regulated exposure to emerging blockchain technologies without directly managing tokens,” Cooper Scanlon, Movement Labs’ co-founder, said in a statement.
Movement is an Ethereum L2 blockchain designed using Move, a Rust-based programming language originally developed by Meta.
Its public mainnet has approximately $250 million in total value locked (TVL), according to Movement.
The MOVE token has a fully diluted value of around $5 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission authorized ETFs holding Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to list in the US in 2024 but has not yet approved any altcoin ETFs.
“Breaking the pattern of ETFs limited to long-established cryptocurrencies opens doors for institutional capital to support next-generation blockchain innovation,” Rushi Manche, Movement Labs’ co-founder, said in a statement.
REX-Osprey has filed for a MOVE ETF. Source: SEC
Related: Bitwise files to list a spot Aptos ETF — the 36th largest cryptocurrency
Altcoin ETFs abound
Asset managers are seeking the SEC’s approval to list ETFs for holding upward of half a dozen different altcoins.
On March 5, asset manager Bitwise filed to list a spot Aptos ETF in the US — a token created by a team led by two former Facebook (now Meta) employees in 2022.
On Feb. 25, US securities exchange Nasdaq requested to list a Grayscale ETF holding the Polkadot network’s native token, DOT (DOT).
Other altcoin ETFs awaiting approval include those holding Litecoin (LTC), Solana (SOL) and Official Trump (TRUMP), among others.
US President Donald Trump, who started his second term in January, said he wants America to become the “world’s crypto capital” and has appointed pro-crypto leaders to key regulatory agencies, including the SEC.
Bloomberg Intelligence has set the odds of the SEC approving Solana and Litecoin ETFs at 70% and 90%, respectively.
Magazine: Meet lawyer Max Burwick — ‘The ambulance chaser of crypto’
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway