‘Mansion tax’ plan angers senior Tories
CONSERVATIVE MPs last night urged the Chancellor to ditch ‘crazy’ plans for a mansion tax.
Sajid Javid faced a backlash after reports that he is considering a raid on the betteroff in next month’s Budget.
The moves are being considered to raise cash to reform stamp duty south of the Border and fund investment in services.
Government sources last night confirmed that the Treasury is looking at scrapping entrepreneur’s relief – which allows business owners to pay only 10 per cent capital gains tax when they sell up.
A mansion tax would be a major U-turn after the Conservatives savaged Labour leader Ed Miliband’s proposal in 2015 to hit owners of homes worth more than £2million. But senior Tories hit out at the plans. Former Tory Cabinet minister Sir John Redwood said: ‘People voted for growth, opportunity and rewards for success. They didn’t vote for a diluted version of Corbyn’s tax raids on the rich.’
It is unclear whether a mansion levy would be collected through a higher council tax band or standalone charge.
Ministers are also said to have dusted off proposals to slash the pension tax relief for higher rate taxpayers from 40 per cent to 20 per cent.
IS there a politician more infatuated with the idea of what the French call les grands
projets than Boris Johnson? He called for a bridge between Britain and France. He wanted to build an airport in the Thames estuary dubbed ‘Boris Island’.
This week the Prime Minister will give the green light to the biggest infrastructure revolution since the Victorian era.
HS2 will get the go-ahead. At £100billion the flagship rail project is eye-wateringly expensive. But it will help tackle chronic overcrowding and endless cancellations on Britain’s dysfunctional railways, while creating jobs and rebooting industry.
Meanwhile, the bold plan to create ten new zero-tariff ‘free ports’ should turbocharge long-overlooked regions, making them magnets of opportunity.
If done properly, Boris’s blueprint will boost prosperity while ‘levelling up’ the North of england and Midlands – fulfilling his promise to voters who swept him into No10.
A word of caution, though. By all means, reward new Tory voters. But don’t alienate Middle Britain.
Proposals to axe pension relief and introduce a so-called mansion tax, which would clobber too many families, are misguided. It’s distinctly un-Conservative to punish hard work and aspiration.
If the electorate had wanted people taxed till the pips squeaked, they’d have backed Jeremy Corbyn.
Of course, this is a classic pre-Budget tactic to test the waters (and appeal to the working class). But a note to the Tories: threatening your core vote in the name of political posturing will only erode the goodwill so hard won in December.