People will not face higher taxes on their payslips after budget, education secretary says
People will not face higher taxes on their payslips after the budget, a cabinet minister said, as she refused to be drawn on what measures could be in the £40bn revenue raiser.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson repeatedly said she could not speculate on how Chancellor Rachel Reeves intends to fill the black hole in the nation’s finances, which is understood to be more than double it was previously thought.
Politics Live: Budget a ‘choice between investment or decline’
Labour said in its manifesto that it will not raise national insurance, income tax or VAT on “working people” – but it is not clear exactly who that means.
Ms Phillipson told Sky News it is someone “whose main income arises from the fact that they go out to work every day”.
However, she refused to say whether it meant someone who does this and also has savings, telling Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “You’re once again asking me to speculate on matters that are for the chancellor.”
She added: “We set out in our manifesto that we would not be increasing VAT, national insurance or income tax on working people. We will hold to that. And in the payslips that they see after the budget, they will not face higher taxes.”
Government sources were later forced to clarify that the promise was valid right up to the next election, after the education secretary appeared to fumble her lines on the matter.
There was further confusion over remarks she gave to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, when she declined to say whether a small business owner with an average net profit of around £13,000 is considered a “working person” by the government.
She acknowledged it is “frustrating” she can’t talk about the budget, but said “that’s not my job – that’s for the chancellor”.
While ministers have remained tight-lipped about the fiscal event next week, it is thought capital gains tax, fuel duty and inheritance tax are some of the levers Ms Reeves could pull.
In recent weeks, ministers have said their commitment not to raise national insurance only applied to the worker element, fuelling speculation that the employer part of this levy could also go up.
It has emerged the government is looking to fill a £40bn shortfall, more than double the £22bn black hole they had previously warned about and used to justify the cut to winter fuel payments.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told Sky News if that is the case Wednesday’s fiscal event will be “certainly one of the biggest tax rising budgets in history”.
The Conservatives have accused Labour of misleading the public during the election campaign with their economic plans.
Gareth Davies, the shadow exchequer secretary, said: “Labour are not keeping their word. They’re attempting to pull the wool over the public’s eyes – but it won’t work.”
He accused Labour of breaking their manifesto promises not only by raising taxes but also by “fiddling the figures to whack up borrowing” despite vowing not to change their fiscal rules.
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UK’s black hole is ‘genuinely big’
Read more:
‘Working people’ and Labour’s muddle with messaging
Sir Keir Starmer says those with assets are ‘not working people’
It comes after Ms Reeves confirmed that she will change her definition of debt to allow her to borrow more to invest.
Speaking to Sky News earlier this week, she said the self-imposed fiscal rule under which borrowing must be falling by the fifth year of economic forecasts will be redefined from the current measure of public sector net debt.
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Former Bank of England governor looks ahead to budget
Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King warned the move could lead to people’s grandchildren shouldering the burden of national debt in the years to come, and Ms Reeves should “demonstrate how that higher borrowing in the short term is going to be constrained in the future”, such as through higher taxes.
He advised Ms Reeves to be “open and honest” about what the higher borrowing will deliver because “it’s the merits of the spending that will determine whether or not people are willing to accept higher taxes in order to see the benefits”.
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?
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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.
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