Double tax on richest homes, says Labour MP

A CLOSE ally of Jeremy Corbyn has unveiled plans to squeeze middle England by doubling council tax on the most expensive homes.

Chris Williamson, shadow fire and emergency services minister, said that the levy for properties in Band A to C – those that in 1991 were worth under £68,000 – should be frozen. Band D properties, worth £68,000 to £88,000 in 1991, would see rises of 20 per cent – increasing by £300 to £1,591. Properties worth more than £320,000 in 1991 would have tax doubled to £6,256.

The proposal came after Mr Corbyn raised the prospect of tax increases for the middle classes to help fund public services. Last week, he warned: “One day you will be ill. You’ll need the NHS.”

In its 2017 general election manifesto, Labour pledged to increase taxes for those earning £80,000 or more. This, with Mr Williamson’s intervention, will prompt concerns that Labour may go even further with tax hikes.

Although Mr Williamson said his tax plan was not party policy, he added it “could be the only way of arresting the cuts” made to local authority funding.

He told the Huffington Post: “There is a lot of support for it.” He added he believed increasing council tax was an “argument that could be won” as the majority of properties in areas were in the lowest bands and residents would therefore have their contributions frozen. The comments come ahead of local authority elections in May.

A Labour spokesman said: “After seven years of cuts to local authority budgets, it’s not true that government cannot afford it. The autumn budget saw tax cuts for bankers but nothing for vulnerable children and social care.”

It is hard to argue that a property tax pegged to home valuations almost 30 years out of date is perfect. Little wonder then, that politicians occasionally float plans to reform council tax, whose bands depend on the price of your home on April 1 1991. But the latest scheme from Labour’s ministerial ranks is cynical, not sensible.

Chris Williamson, shadow minister for fire and emergency services and a fellow traveller with Jeremy Corbyn, has proposed dramatic increases for those in the tax’s top five bands, with the top band rate being doubled. By his admission, in his own city of Derby the plan would raise £10 million from a mere 15 per cent of voters, with others paying nothing. There is another way of describing such a deliberate narrowing of the tax base: playing the politics of division.

Forget the fact that many in large houses may be cash-strapped older people. Labour under Mr Corbyn is intent on unleashing class war in which the aggressors are always the rich, or those who can be pilloried as well-off. Mr Williamson says that his is “an argument that could be won”. But can it? Local authorities can already raise council tax up to a certain threshold, and can increase it further if voters agree in a referendum. With breathtaking hypocrisy, Williamson described this democratic method as a “cynical … government logic that nobody would vote for higher taxes.”

At least Labour has learnt that people are not fond of the state taking their money. But its reaction is to stoke resentment and envy so that it can blamelessly soak class enemies. This is a useful reminder that, for an ideology espousing dreary uniformity, the Left is remarkably determined to sow division.