Stamp duty
STAMP duty must be cut “as a matter of urgency” as part of a return to Conservative values if the party is to win the next election, Jacob Rees-mogg declares today.
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, the Tory MP denies reports that he is preparing to challenge Theresa May – but condemns her election campaign as “too managerial” and “lacking inspiration”. Setting out his vision for electoral success, he urges her to cut stamp duty and income tax, demolish tower blocks and tackle “scarcely competent monopolies” such as the energy markets.
He writes that he wants to be “the servant of the Conservative Party, not its master”, and highlights that Mrs May “giggled” at the prospect of his even becoming a senior minister. However, his intervention may raise, rather than dispel, speculation that he harbours ambitions for the leadership.
It comes as ministers, peers and think tanks are urging Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, to cut stamp duty – dubbed a “tax on moving” – in his Autumn Budget. Mr Rees-mogg says the Government must “go with the grain of what people want” as he makes an impassioned case for tax cuts.
He says: “In terms of taxation, the view that individuals matter is a reminder that the money belongs to a specific person, and the state may only take what it needs. It is not the state’s money of which it benevolently allows the taxpayer to keep a portion.
“Generally people will spend their own money more effectively than the Government and there is no money at all, except for that earned in the private sector.”
He highlights the fact that the decision by George Osborne, the former chancellor, to cut corporation tax has actually increased revenues. He adds: “In addition to low taxation being right in terms of ownership, it is also better economically. The recent cuts in corporation tax, one of George Osborne’s most successful policies, have more than doubled the tax received by the Government.
“This has helped businesses afford to invest and employ people, leading to a stronger economy and allowing the Government more easily to finance its expenditure. This example ought to be applied to income tax and, as a matter of urgency, to stamp duty.”
There are claims that Mr Rees-mogg, an Old Etonian, is “sounding out” friends about whether he should enter the race to succeed Mrs May. Mr Reesmogg has attempted to dispel the speculation, which was triggered by a poll suggesting he is the second-most popular choice to become the next Tory leader among party members.
He says: “First of all, I unequivocally support Theresa May, and do not covet her job. Second, if I did I would be a fool for only in Opposition do political parties choose leaders who have never held high ministerial office. Third, I neither am a candidate, nor wish to be one. I want to be the servant of the Conservative Party, not its master. Nor Rees-mogg: Cut stamp duty now
is this some clever plan to seek other office; if it were, it would have been scotched some weeks ago when it was suggested to the PM, who giggled in response rather more than my mother considered tactful.”
Mr Rees-mogg warns that the Government must abandon the “nanny knows best approach” and instead “free individuals to maximise their own capabilities”.
He says that Grenfell Tower in west London, where at least 80 people are thought to have died in a fire, was built because “officialdom wanted tower blocks” – despite the majority of people wanting to live in houses with small gardens.
He suggests that the Government should “pull down” the tower blocks and replace them with houses, which could then be sold at a discount to residents. “It would help people have what they want and reinvigorate home ownership, which creates a stable society but also meets a natural, almost fundamental, human ambition,” he says.
While the Conservatives are in favour of the free market, he says that the party must tackle monopolies. He says: “As a constituency MP, the worst organisation I deal with is British Telecom, but it is not alone as a scarcely competent monopolist.
“The energy companies have a degree of arrogance towards the customers, while both banks and insurance firms penalise loyalty and the BBC writes eye-wateringly rude letters to people who do not own a television, assuming that they must be crooks.
“This is not about price caps, but about tilting the scales back towards the individual: if a company can penalise me for not paying on time, I ought to be able to fine it for sending out the wrong bill.”