Candidates must not forget about Corbyn
As the Tory leadership candidates prepare to debate, they must not forget who the real enemy is. Jeremy Corbyn is an unashamed Marxist at war with the West, popular capitalism and private property. The latest proof of this: Labour has commissioned and welcomed a report recommending the replacement of inheritance tax, in itself an appalling and destructive policy, with an even more onerous levy on any gifts over a “lifetime allowance” of just £125,000. Anybody gifted any cash or property worth more than that will see it classified as income and taxed at regular income tax rates.
This would be an explosive development, striking against family life, private charity and the very principle of inheritance. Millions who have never been taxed before now might be; it would no longer even be possible for many parents to help their children without being taxed punitively. The present system is hardly fair, but at least the threshold for death duties starts at a much higher £325,000 per individual, and family homes worth up to £950,000 can now be passed tax-free to direct descendants. As the average house price is currently £226,798, most people can rest assured that the legacy they have worked their whole life to build will go to their loved ones. In addition, all gifts – however large – that are made at least seven years before death are not taxed.
Labour’s proposal, by contrast, would hit anyone over the much lower threshold of £125,000 – including the very working class that Labour has pretensions to represent. The implications would be immense. A successful child who wants to buy their parents a house would have to pay gift tax on it. The plan hurts those who stick together and pool their resources down the generations, which is exactly what the hard-Left wants to stop. To them, all property is theft and the best way to redistribute it is for the government to steal it. The tax would be extremely unpopular, more so than the present inheritance tax, already loathed even by most of those who will never have to pay it.
There was further proof of Mr Corbyn’s unfitness for office this weekend. He questioned whether or not there is “credible evidence” that Iran attacked two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Of course all intelligence has to be scrutinised; the West has made mistakes before and should proceed with caution. But Mr Corbyn always takes the side of the West’s critics and opposes standing up to bullies. He is happy, however, to share platforms with former terrorists and even to appear on Iran’s Press TV, for which he was paid.
Labour is third in some polls at the moment, but if Brexit isn’t delivered and Brexit Party voters don’t return to the Tories, the first-past-thepost system may still give Labour enough of an advantage to put it in government at the head of a nightmare coalition with the Lib Dems and the SNP. This is why the Conservative candidates have to be deadly serious about getting Brexit done, which requires a complete change in negotiation strategy allied with a bold new domestic fiscal agenda to shake up the economy, make us much more competitive and allow us to weather any temporary dislocations.
As to inheritance tax, the Conservative Party should not only oppose any attempt to expand it but pledge to lift the current thresholds even higher. Even better, they should pledge the total abolition of the levy.
A good contest is more likely to bring such ideas to the fore. But it must not descend into what has been described as “blue-on-blue action”, a pointlessly ugly argument that gets personal fast and cripples the ability of the next prime minister to lead – just as the current one is trying to do by attempting to turn on the spending taps during her last days in office, thereby limiting what the new leader can do economically. The Conservatives must debate, then unite against the extremist Left.
Labour’s proposed new inheritance tax would hit the very working class that it has pretensions to represent