UK Politics Thread part II

[Jimbuna]

Labour vows to fund NHS pledges by tackling tax dodgers

Labour is pledging to fund policies on the NHS and school breakfast clubs by boosting efforts to tackle tax dodgers.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves says plans to give more money to tax officials would help raise £5bn a year.

The party had to find a way to plug the gap in its spending commitments after the government adopted its plan to scrap non-dom tax status.

It says it will also raise £2.6bn by closing "loopholes" in the government's plans to abolish non-dom exemptions.

Non-doms are UK residents whose permanent home for tax purposes is abroad, meaning they do not have to pay UK tax on money they earn overseas.

If it wins power, Labour said it would scrap a proposed 50% discount on the tax non-doms would have to pay in the first year of the new rules.

It said all foreign assets held in offshore trusts would also be subject to UK inheritance tax, while the government has said those held in a trust set up before April 2025 would be excluded from inheritance tax permanently.

Ms Reeves insisted she was "confident" her plans would raise the amount Labour had estimated.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she denied the sums were "small change" compared to the potential cuts facing public services, saying Labour's plans for the NHS and schools would make "a massive difference to millions of people".

The government said it had already brought in 200 measures to tackle tax non-compliance.

Treasury Minister Laura Trott said: "After a month of searching for a plan to pay for Labour's unfunded spending, the shadow chancellor still cannot say how she will fill the enormous black hole in their promises. And that means one thing - more taxes."

There have been several previous attempts to close the gap between what the economy should be producing in tax and what is actually received.

Treasury Minister Laura Trott said: "After a month of searching for a plan to pay for Labour's unfunded spending, the shadow chancellor still cannot say how she will fill the enormous black hole in their promises. And that means one thing - more taxes."

There have been several previous attempts to close the gap between what the economy should be producing in tax and what is actually received.

Budget leaves Labour seeking savings to fund pledges
What are non-doms and how are the rules changing
How much will the 2p National Insurance cut save me?
Labour had been planning to pay for flagship pledges - including £365m for free school breakfast clubs and £1.6bn for more hospital and dental appointments - by replacing the UK's current non-dom tax regime.

However at his spring Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he would change the non-dom tax rules to pay for a cut to National Insurance.

Labour has a self-imposed rule that, if elected, it will not borrow to fund day-to-day spending and following Mr Hunt's non-doms announcement the party faced questions as to how it would fund its existing promises.

Now, Ms Reeves has set out her alternative plan, which also includes strengthening the government's proposed replacement of non-dom rules.

The party says these changes could bring in £1bn in one year, rising to £2.6bn over the course of the next Parliament.

Ms Reeves said her party would also give the HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) more resources to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, spending £555m on increasing the number of tax officers.

It also wants to invest in digitising the tax office to improve customer services and "free up resources to focus on more complex cases".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68762802

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

UK foreign aid spending on asylum seekers rises again

More than a quarter of all UK overseas aid was spent on asylum costs at home last year, new figures show.

The Foreign Office statistics reveal £4.3bn of its foreign aid budget went on supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

That represents a 16% increase from the £3.7bn that was spent in 2022.

The government said it had spent £15bn on development last year, including on humanitarian aid in Gaza and had had doubled spending in poorer countries.

But critics say the government has "lost its grip" by allowing the Home Office to use UK foreign aid budgets, weakening crisis prevention schemes.

Labour's shadow international development minister Lisa Nandy said it "beggars belief" that the government was using the overseas aid budget to "bail out their failing asylum system with a blank cheque".

She said: "This is sticking plaster politics at its worst, terrible value for money for British taxpayers and is no way to run the development budget or the Home Office."

Under current aid rules, the government can spend overseas assistance on what are called "in donor refugee costs" for the first year that an asylum seeker is in the UK.

Charities and the government's aid watchdog criticised ministers for allowing aid spending to rise in the UK at the expense of helping the poorest people overseas.

Much of the £4.3bn is spent by the Home Office (about £2.9bn), mostly on housing for asylum seekers. The rest covers education, health and other social needs.

The UK's overall aid budget in 2023 had risen by £2.6bn since the previous year, taking the total to £15.4bn, data published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) showed.

However, less money was spent on the FCDO's overseas bilateral aid commitments - £4.1bn - than on asylum seekers in the UK, the same data showed.

And the UK's bilateral spending on humanitarian assistance fell from £1.1bn in 2022 to £888m in 2023.

The official watchdog of government aid spending, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), said it had continuing concerns about value for money and allowing the Home Office to spend "an unlimited amount" on hosting asylum seekers at the expense of the FCDO's budget is "cutting across the normal lines of accountability".

Tamsyn Barton, the ICAI's chief commissioner, added: "What's more, using so much of the aid budget on UK asylum hotels, rather than on supporting people nearer home, is inequitable and inefficient."

A government spokesperson said the UK had spent £15bn on development last year, including on humanitarian aid in Gaza.

"We are also nearly doubling our spend in low-income countries this financial year," they added.

"Last year's budget was boosted by additional funding to support refugees in the UK, who have escaped oppression and conflict overseas, including from Ukraine and Afghanistan.

"We will continue to ensure our aid budget delivers value for money for British taxpayers."

Separately, Home Secretary James Cleverly has announced about 150 asylum seeker hotels will close by May and the closure process will continue "until the last hotel is closed".

The Home Office spent about £8m every day last year on such accommodation, with more than 56,000 asylum seekers in hotels at the end of September and about 36,000 now.

Labour's shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock accused the home secretary of "celebrating failure" over "asylum chaos".

"So-called 'asylum hotels' didn't exist before the Tories lost control of the asylum backlog, and Rishi Sunak promised to end them by the end of 2023," he said.

He said a Labour government would create a new cross-border police unit in partnership with Europol to "smash the criminal smuggler gangs" and introduce a new returns unit that would "remove people with no right to be here".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68781450

[Jimbuna]

Boris Johnson brands Rishi Sunak’s policies as ‘absolutely nuts’ in scathing attack

Boris Johnson has attacked Rishi Sunak’s smoking policy as “nuts” as he criticised the state of the Conservative Party at an event in Canada.

Speaking at a gathering of conservatives in Ottawa, the former prime minister suggested his party lacked the “dynamism” of its Canadian counterparts, who appear on course to win the next election.

It has been rumoured in Westminster that Mr Johnson could return to the campaign trail at the general election this year.

But his comments to the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference on Wednesday night appeared to make this prospect less likely as he criticised policies that were being carried out “in the name of conservatism”.

He said: “We are, on the whole, in favour of freedom and it is that single Anglo-Saxon idea of freedom that I think unites conservatives, or should unite conservatives.
“And when I look at some of the things that we are doing now, or that are being done in the name of conservatism, I think they are absolutely nuts.”

Mr Johnson singled out his successor-but-one’s policy of increasing the minimum age for buying tobacco every year in an effort to phase out smoking, which formed a major part of Mr Sunak’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference last year.

He said: “When the party of Winston Churchill wants to ban cigars, donnez-moi un break as they say in Quebec, it’s just mad.”

Mr Sunak’s flagship policy has faced criticism from the more libertarian wing of his party, and is expected to be the subject of a free vote when MPs debate the legislation for the first time on April 16.

But with backing from the Labour Party, internal opposition from Conservatives is unlikely to derail the plans.

Speaking ahead of the introduction of the Bill last month, Mr Sunak said: “If we want to build a better future for our children we need to tackle the single biggest entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability and death: smoking.”

The law proposed by the Prime Minister would prevent anyone who is turning 15 this year, or younger, from ever being able to legally buy tobacco products.

A similar law had been due to come into effect in New Zealand in July, but was repealed by the country’s new coalition government in February.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...c7a9ced3&ei=39

[Jimbuna]

Police investigate Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner over council house sale

Greater Manchester Police have launched an investigation into Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner over the sale of her council house.

She has been accused of breaking electoral law by giving false information about her main residence.

Ms Rayner denies this and Labour said it remains "completely confident" she has complied with all the rules.

The police investigation has been prompted by a complaint from Tory MP James Daly.

A police spokesperson said: "We're investigating whether any offences have been committed. This follows a reassessment of the information provided to us by Mr Daly."

Mr Daly, the MP for Bury North, is understood to have made police aware of neighbours contradicting Ms Rayner's statement that a property, separate from her husband's, was her main residency.

Police initially said there would be no investigation but Mr Daley complained that officers did not appear to have looked the electoral roll and other documents.

Ms Rayner, nee Bowen, bought the semi-detached home in 2007, getting a 25% discount under the Right to Buy scheme introduced by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The former carer is said to have made a £48,500 profit when selling the house eight years later.

Tax experts have estimated that, while Ms Rayner may not have owed anything in Capital Gains Tax following the sale depending on her residency situation, there are circumstances in which she could have owed as much as £3,500 to HM Revenue and Customs.

The MP, who is also Labour's shadow housing secretary, was registered as living at Vicarage Road, Stockport, in Greater Manchester, on the electoral roll until she sold the property in 2015.

But she appears to have given two different addresses when she re-registered the births of two of her children in 2010 following her marriage to Mark Rayner.

The other address listed, Lowndes Lane, is where her husband was registered as living, according to reports in the Mail on Sunday.

The allegations have sprung from claims made in a book by Lord Ashcroft, a former Conservative Party deputy chairman, taken up by Mr Daly, who reported alleged issues to the police.

Separately, Mr Daly was concerned Capital Gains Tax may be due on the sale of Ms Rayner's property, as normally married couples can only have one property as their main home.

Ms Rayner has said she was not liable because it was her home and the "only one" she owned, as her then-husband "already owned his own home independently".

It is alleged that it would not be allowed for Ms Rayner and her then husband to have both avoided Capital Gains Tax when they sold these properties after they married.

Ms Rayner says she has taken expert tax advice, which she believes confirms her position that no Capital Gains Tax was payable, although she has resisted calls to publish the advice.

She insists she has done nothing wrong and has been backed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves in recent weeks.

A Labour spokesperson said: "Angela welcomes the chance to set out the facts with the police.

"We remain completely confident that Angela has complied with the rules at all times and it's now appropriate to let the police do its work."

Conservative minister Grant Shapps said he welcomed the police looking into the issue again.

He said: "The double standards have been extraordinary, Angela Rayner herself has spent her political career calling people out for exactly the thing that she seems to be doing now.

"It's not acceptable to ignore it and it's not acceptable for Keir Starmer to say he won't even read reports into it.

"This is something which is a serious matter, it's important it's looked into properly. And I welcome the idea that the police are doing that."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68797258

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Humza Yousaf branded 'deeply and increasingly unpopular' after new poll blow

Humza Yousaf's popularity has plunged with both SNP supporters and the public, new polling shows.

In a blow to the Scottish First Minister, the survey by Norstat found just 29% of SNP voters said he is doing a good job compared with 36% who said he is doing badly giving him a net score of minus seven.

It marks a major drop since January when he had a net rating of 14 and comes after a furore over controversial new hate crime laws.

Among the general public in Scotland, Mr Yousaf's net popularity score is down 15 points to minus 32.

Sir John Curtice, the polling guru and professor of politics at Strathclyde University, told the Sunday Times the polling shows the SNP leader "is deeply and increasingly unpopular".
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sawar has a net rating of minus 17, while Scottish Tory leader Douglass Ross was on minus 38.

The poll of 1,086 people aged 16 or over in Scotland found the SNP is neck and neck with Labour on 32% when it comes to Westminster voting intention.

It is the lowest score the nationalists have recorded with the polling company since the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

The Tories are on 16%, the Lib Dems pick up 9%, while Nigel Farage-linked Reform UK is on 5%.

The pro-nationalist vote risks being split with the Greens backed by 4% and Alex Salmond's Alba Party taking 2%.

Support among Scots for breaking away from the UK stands at 47% when undecided voters are excluded, compared with 53% backing the Union in the survey carried out between April 9 and 12.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other...5a592e89&ei=17

[Jimbuna]

[mapuc]

Maybe the Labour should take a close look inwards instead of pointing fingers at other parties.

They have to ask them self why Tories gets more funds than they do.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

In the very broadest of terms the Tories represent the wealthy in society and Labour the working class. As some would have us believe.

[Moonlight]

Labour haven't represented the working class for 25 years or more, in fact they have had the policies of the Tory light for a decade or more, as in, wear a red coat but have a blue one under it.

[Jimbuna]

Each to their own belief I suppose but I'm very much from the old school despite the fact I'll ignore both parties in May and vote Independent.

[Jimbuna]

Humiliation for Humza Yousaf as SNP dealt huge poll blow after crushing by-election defeat

Humza Yousaf has been dealt another blow following the SNP's latest crushing defeat, with his party having dramatically dropped through the Scottish polls.

The party's favours have been crushed for the second time in less than a year after the latest by-election in the home nation revealed a massive dip in support.

The SNP was among parties jostling for the Inverness South (Highland) council seat last week, with thousands of people turning out to elect a new local councillor.

But the First Minister's candidate failed to clinch the seat, losing out to independent candidate Duncan Cameron McDonald.

While the SNP is no stranger to losing ground in Scotland, polls showed the latest defeat was particularly brutal, with the party having lost nearly 16 percentage points - trailing the Liberal Democrats in a city which has been a SNP stronghold for years.
Pollsters Britain Elects found that the SNP was one of two parties that saw a negative shift in their support.

Mr Yousaf's candidate received just 19.4 percent of the 3,305 votes, while the local Conservatives received 16.1 percent.

The result was a small 0.8 decline for the Tories, but the SNP saw a massive 15.8 percent loss in its voting share, the pollsters found. Nevertheless, it was still a top contender, placing among the parties most favoured in the running for the Inverness council seat.

The leading candidate received 22.1 percent of the vote, while the Liberal Democrats came second with 19.7 percent, leaving the SNP in third place.

The Conservatives followed, with Scottish Labour coming fourth at 11 percent and the Greens fifth with 7.2 percent of the vote.

Winning candidate Duncan McDonald told the Press and Journal: "I'm hoping it was because I was honest. That's what I want, openness and honesty.

"That's what I try to portray and that's what I told people on the doorstep. They reacted to that and voted for me."

It comes as the party leader Humza Yousaf's popularity continues heading south in the polls after the latest controversy surrounding the Scottish Government's hate crime bill. A survey by Norstat has revealed that the First Minister has fallen in popularity by 15 points since January to -32 with the general public, the Scottish Daily Express reports.

He is even struggling among his own supporters, with just 29 per cent of people who voted for the Nats at the last general election believing he is doing a good job. Some 36 per cent think he has been poor in office. This net score of -7 is a huge drop from January when he scored +14 among SNP supporters.

While it might not appear as bad as it seems, and it is important to note that local factors are often at play at council by-elections, the by-election upset comes after the SNP was dealt an embarrassing defeat at Parliamentary level in late 2023. Scotland's leading party was dealt a blow last year when it failed to secure less than half of its Labour rival's votes during October's Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

Scottish Labour candidate Michael Shanks clinched the seat with 17,845 votes, more than double those won by the SNP's Katy Loudon, representing a massive 20.4 percent swing.

The SNP's loss during that election was just one point different from the party's latest defeat, with Ms Loudon's 8,399 votes representing a 16.6 percent drop compared to the 2019 general election.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other...e8667748&ei=16

[Jimbuna]

Rishi Sunak made a mistake cutting NI and not income tax ahead of general election, pollster says

Aleading pollster has said Rishi Sunak made the “wrong political choice” cutting National Insurance in the spring budget, as 61 per cent of voters say there is zero per cent chance they will vote Conservative at the next election.

Director of More in Common Luke Tryl said there was only a 5 per cent chance of a Tory victory at the next election as new research by the thinktank revealed the extent of Tory woes - as voters reject key policies and the party haemmorhages support across demographics.

Polling by the thinktank shows that most voters feel that the government’s national insurance cuts won’t help them personally and would have instead favoured income tax cuts or other cost of living policies.
Only 44 per cent of voters said national insurance tax cuts would help their personal financial situation, while 40 per cent said they would not at all. Meanwhile, 65 per cent of voters thought cutting income tax would be helpful, and 77 per cent and 73 per cent thought price caps on energy and basic goods respectively would have a positive impact on their personal circumstances.

It was also revealed that six in ten voters (61 per cent) said there was a zero per cent change that they would vote for the Conservatives at the next election, with only 8 per cent saying they would definitely hand the Tories their vote.

In comparison, 46 per cent say that they would never vote for the Labour Party and 24 per cent put their chance of voting Labour at more than seven out of ten.

Mr Tryl told reporters that the results showed the Conservatives had made the “wrong political choice” in opting to cut national insurance and should instead have considered improving other policies that could have helped voters with the cost of living.

The chancellor announced a further two percentage point slash to national insurance among a series of tax cuts in his spring Budget ahead of this year’s general election, as support for the Conservative party dropped to 45-year low.

Jeremy Hunt‘s attempted to shore up support for his languishing party by unveiling the £10bn tax cut came despite warnings from the Budget watchdog that the average worker would still be hundreds of pounds worse off overall, and from economic thinktanks that the cuts would worsen economic inequalities and public services.

Significantly, the Tories have also lost their reputation as the party of pensioners as it was revealed that more people (35 per cent) think the Labour party better represents the interests of that demographic than the Conservatives (27 per cent).

Mr Tryll told the Independent that in focus groups conducted by More in Common, many pensioners were left “disappointed” by the spring statement’s focus on tax cuts for workers, with many left asking “what was in the budget for me?”

He explained that the over-70s were a key “swing group” for the Conservatives and “70 per cent of Tory to undecided voters are women and their average age is 61, so many of them are pensioners”. The Tories perceived failures to address the issues in the NHS – which came second on a list of voter priorities – has also caused the party to lose support in this group, Mr Tryl said.

Today’s damning findings will further concern the bealegued prime minister as Labour’s support rises across voter groups, including within the red wall, which was widely viewed as the backbone of the Conservative’s 2019 general election success.

Keir Starmer is now 18-points ahead of Rishi Sunak amongst red wall voters over the question of would make a better prime minister. Though Mr Sunak still maintains more support than Sir Keir in traditional rural Tory voting areas, Mr Tryl warned that the prime minister will struggle to “appeal” to lost 2019 voters because he is not trusted on issues such as cost of living and the NHS.

According to the research, 51 per cent of voters would describe the prime minister as “out of touch” compared to just 21 per cent of voters who attributed the descriptor to Keir Starmer. The majority of voters also agreed that Labour best represents the interests of working class people (53 per cent) and their families (51 per cent). This was down to 15 per cent and 17 per cent for the Conservatives respectively.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...0ef03b0c&ei=35

[Jimbuna]

The first cuckoo in spring – Liz Truss has ‘unfinished business’

Liz Truss is opposed to the ban on cigarettes. But has she been smoking toad venom? (Now

available in vape form, as we reported last week.) As one of the most hallucinogenic substances known to humankind, it would explain her new promotional tour.

Yes, we all know Truss is flogging a book and trying to reinvent herself as a libertarian warrior in America. However, she’s showing the self-awareness of a cactus.

The shortest-serving prime minister in Britain’s history – who was lucky to last 49 days – has a new narrative for why she failed: “I was undermined by organisations like the Bank of England.”

Ominously she adds: “I didn’t have enough time… I have unfinished business.”

That opinion is shared by almost no one in the rest of the country. Recent polling by Ipsos suggests that her ratings remain at historical lows – worse than any other senior UK politician.
Just 8 per cent of the public hold a favourable opinion of Truss, with 68 per cent unfavourable (so net -60). Sunak and Johnson are on -34 and -31 respectively, with Starmer on -11.

Truss is on standby to “save the West” and doesn’t rule out a Downing Street sequel. (Apocaliz Now?) “I’m not saying I’m perfect – nobody is perfect.”

Her tenure remains a national embarrassment – a simple and uncontroversial statement that is largely accepted across party political lines. Yet she considers herself unlucky to have lost power, the victim of a plot by dark establishment forces. Do you disagree with her? You’re part of the problem.

Truss was correct to diagnose feeble economic growth. However, her plan for solving this was irrational – the equivalent of throwing a brick into a washing machine on spin cycle.

Her unique blend of ideology, incompetence and ignorance (about Britain’s economy, and about global markets) will cost future generations many tens of billions of pounds.

So this unjustified sense of victimhood pushes public tolerance too far. She remains the Conservative Party’s greatest gift to Keir Starmer.

Yesterday, Truss popped up in the Wall Street Journal with an article denouncing “the deep state” in Britain and America.

Liz, I have bought a 10-metre roll of kitchen foil and will spend the rest of the week making hats for you. Lettuce hope sanity prevails.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...087070e1&ei=13