Corbyn’s ‘tax on robots’
Labour leader wants ‘greedy’ companies that replace human staff to help fund their retraining
JEREMY CORBYN wants companies that profit from replacing humans with robots to pay more tax because he believes automation is a “threat” to workers.
The Labour leader wants to use the money to create a fund to retrain staff who lose their jobs because of new technology. He said that “we should all get the benefits” from “greedy” global corporations such as Amazon which have “made a great deal of money out of incredibly advanced technology”.
In his speech to the Labour conference today, he will set out plans to “manage” robotics and technology “for the benefit of society as a whole”. The policy will be part of a wider economic plan that Mr Corbyn will describe as the “New Common Sense”.
His comments are likely to raise concerns that Labour plans to impose a “robot tax” on firms that develop new technology, or even impose some form of state intervention on them. Conservatives last night said any attempt to tax innovation would be “mad”.
Mr Corbyn’s ability to handle the economy is already under fresh scrutiny after John Mcdonnell, the shadow chancellor, said Labour members were carrying out “scenario” planning for a run on the pound if Labour were to gain power.
Mr Corbyn will today tell the Labour conference in Brighton: “We need urgently to face the challenge of automation; robotics that could make so much of contemporary work redundant. That is a threat in the hands of the greedy, but what an opportunity if it’s managed in the interests of society as a whole.
“If planned and managed properly, accelerated technological change can be the gateway for a new settlement between work and leisure, a springboard for expanded creativity and culture, making technology our servant and not our master at long last.”
Yesterday, in an interview with the BBC, Mr Corbyn railed against Google, Amazon and other companies that have made billions by developing new technology, saying they should share the benefits with society.
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn confirmed that the Labour leader was referring to his belief that Google and Amazon should pay more tax. A Labour spokesman added: “We want all companies to pay the taxes that are due and we would increase corporation tax.”
Charlie Elphicke, a Conservative MP, said: “We all want to see companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook pay a fair share of tax but taxing innovation and new ideas is economics of the mad house – it’s increasingly clear Labour would hold Britain back, destroy jobs and cause a run on the pound.”
Mr Corbyn will unveil plans for free lifelong education, including retraining programmes for adults who lose their jobs through new technology, which would cost a total of £13billion per year, including £11billion already announced for scrapping university tuition fees.
Labour MPS are no longer permitted to sit among members inside the main hall at their party’s conference. Sounds humiliating. Given what those members think of them, though, it’s probably for their own good. “Many Labour MPS,” fumed one delegate in the main hall in Brighton yesterday, “[waged] what can only be called psychological warfare against Jeremy Corbyn.” The rest of the hall applauded in furious agreement. Even outside the hall, though, MPS must sometimes feel nervous. Momentum is holding a conference of its own nearby. At one of its events yesterday, a member demanded that Labour MPS be “politically re-educated”, because they were “anti-theoretical” and “politically illiterate”. Still, it’s all right for those MPS considered sufficiently devoted to their leader. The most ardently committed are rewarded with their own special version of the “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” chant. “Oh, Emily Thornberry,” chorused delegates on Monday after a speech by the shadow foreign secretary. “Oh, Becky Longbailey,” they chorused yesterday after a speech by the shadow business secretary. One Labour figure who will never be honoured in this fashion, I suspect, is Tom Watson. Supporters of Mr Corbyn have been hostile to Labour’s deputy leader ever since the ill-fated “coup” of summer 2016, when he failed to defend their hero. Then, during his speech at last year’s Labour conference, Mr Watson mocked one of the numerous Corbynites who heckled him. Now, though, it seems Mr Watson is a beaten man. Because, on the main conference stage yesterday, he performed the most squirmingly abject display of grovelling. He actually launched into his own solo rendition of “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” – and urged the hall to join in. But Mr Watson’s plea for mercy wasn’t finished yet. “Jeremy,” he cooed, had taught the country “we don’t need to be afraid”, and that “we can choose to live in love and hope”. Yes, “Jeremy” had “shown it was possible”. Mr Watson turned to face Mr Corbyn. “Thank you, Jeremy,” simpered Mr Watson, wetly. He also begged forgiveness from Mr Corbyn’s praetorian guard. Labour, he gurgled, was sure to win the next election, “now that we have the… Momentum!” It was embarrassing. Tom Watson: the lethal fixer, the gangster-suited plotter, the West Bromwich Machiavelli, the man who helped bring down Tony Blair… reduced, before our eyes, to a snivelling, obsequious jelly.
A recurrent theme of his speech was that we must all stop “living in fear”. I felt as if I were watching a video of a hostage victim, sweatily reassuring his family that his captors were treating him well. I don’t know about the rest of Labour’s MPS, but it looks as though the “political re-education” of Mr Watson is complete.