We voted for a tax-cutting Tory party, not for raising the burden by stealth
Agroup of millionaire celebrities, self-identifying as the “most privileged class of human beings to walk the Earth”, say they want to pay more in tax. So can the Treasury expect their additional, voluntary cheques in the post? Of course not. The aim of their open letter, signed by the likes of the comedy actor Simon Pegg, is to encourage the Government to compel other people to pay more. It is flog-the-rich socialism dressed up as an act of altruism.
It is also exactly the sort of virtuesignalling nonsense that was rejected by voters in December in their millions. Labour based its entire platform on the idea that you could squeeze the wealthy without cost, that the Tories only refused to hike taxes on the “rich” because of some corrupt dependence on business interests and hedge funds. But the public voted instead for a tax-cutting party. The Conservatives pledged not to put up the rates of VAT, income tax or national insurance, and to lift the threshold at which you start paying the latter.
Ever since the election, however, the wet, one-time Mayite wing of the party has pushed the narrative that the Conservatives only won because they “moderated” their economic message. It is a narrative that has been amplified by the liberal-Left media, who never miss an opportunity to proclaim the moral superiority of high taxes and a larger state. It is also deeply flawed.
Fine, austerity has been abandoned, replaced by a willingness to spend big on infrastructure projects and some public services. But where is the overwhelming evidence – even among “Red Wall” voters – of this newfound enthusiasm for tax increases? It is based on a caricature both of the tax system as it is and of the new Tories. It implies that Britain is somehow a low-tax country (which has not been true for many decades) and that the people of Redcar and Darlington would, like Mr Pegg, happily pay more.
I really doubt that they would. They can see, just as much as anyone else, the terrible waste everywhere in the public sector, from the failed regeneration schemes of the Blair era and the huge amounts spent on projects like HS2 to the bureaucracy of the health service. And surely they want to get on in life and enjoy greater spending power, just like the Tory voters of Surrey and Essex? That is why they rejected Jeremy Corbyn’s politics of victimhood and despair. It is also why, during the election, the Tories targeted adverts at them warning that Labour would be prepared to put up fuel duty in their deranged quest to appease environmental radicals.
So I hope the rumours that the forthcoming Budget will aim to increase tax revenues, albeit while keeping to the letter of Tory manifesto commitments, are wrong. It is also why I hope the Government will not repeat the mistake it made last week of using stealth charges to pay for its spending plans: new money for the police, it was announced, will be partially funded via allowing police and crime commissioners to increase the precept they can add to council tax. Such ruses rarely end well.
Ever since the election, the wet, onetime Mayite wing of the party has pushed the narrative that the Tories only won because they ‘moderated’ their economic message