Stubborn Starmer isn’t listening to any warnings
Source - Daily Telegraph
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Every single one of Labour’s new policies comes with a dire health warning.
Whether it is the removal of winter fuel payments from the elderly or the tax raid on private schools, there are legitimate concerns that these ideologically driven moves will cause more harm than good. But Labour is not interested in hearing any of it.
The latest in this unrelenting saga is the plot to shake up rights for renters, which is now proving to be the final straw for many fed-up landlords who provide good homes at fair rates.
The landlord exodus is being fuelled further by fears that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is plotting a capital gains tax raid – spurring many property investors who were on the fence about exiting the sector to sell up before the Budget on Oct 30.
Driving landlords out of the rental market can only mean bad news for tenants. It means fewer properties, higher rents and more misery.
Meanwhile HM Revenue and Customs itself has warned that increasing capital gains rates to match income tax could backfire and end up costing the country £2bn.
The decision to tax private education – made to appease the hard Left – is continuing to cause growing alarm, with the Government this week being warned that armed forces families will be forced to abandon the military because they can’t afford school fees.
The big question is will Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his Chancellor pay any attention to a single one of these warnings? It’s looking unlikely. They are determined to enforce the change that they see fit – no matter the cost.
It’s blindingly obvious that the decision to take winter fuel payments away from pensioners with an annual income as low as £11,500 was a terrible mistake. Labour itself warned previously that doing such a thing could cost thousands of lives.
It is a baffling decision that not only doesn’t make much economic sense, but is politically disastrous. Labour is so preoccupied with doing what it deems to be the right thing that it isn’t listening to anyone who is warning these policies will have damaging side effects.
Yet I still hope that there’s a chance that Labour really isn’t this stupid and that they will find a way to backtrack without facing the humiliation they deserve.
There still is a way out for the Chancellor. I suspect money might still be found in order to provide energy bill support to more pensioners. Just as Labour feigned shock over the £22bn blackhole in Britain’s finances, I imagine it will magically find more money to help pensioners, and then take credit for doing so.
Chatter around the prospect of raising capital gains tax rates has likely already prompted a rise in sell-offs, no doubt increasing the tax take for the year. Labour could likely use that extra cash to keep paying the winter fuel payments.
Budgets are just as much about politics as they are economics. We’ve been warned to expect the worst, so anything other than brutal tax rises will look like a blessing in comparison.
In the meantime, Labour’s unwillingness to listen to critics will continue to do little to calm nerves ahead of the Budget. Sir Keir and his Chancellor are clearly stubborn, we can only hope they are smart enough to admit when they’ve made a stupid mistake. If not, this Government surely will not last.
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