'Reeves wants to bring in wealth taxes to further subsidise the lives of the skint and idle' - Kelvin MacKenzie

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers a speech at the Treasury on July 8

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Kelvin Mackenzie

By Kelvin Mackenzie


Published: 09/07/2024

- 14:55

Updated: 09/07/2024

- 14:58

Kelvin MacKenzie is the former editor of The Sun

Literally within what feels like seconds of getting her feet under the desk at No.11 Downing Street, Rachel Reeves said what every Tory and Reform voter always knew she was going to claim; We are in the worst financial state since World War Two and you the middle classes (yes, the broadshouldered lot) will have to pay.

Actually, she didn’t say that last bit yet, but we all know that will be on its way. Ms Reeves has asked the Treasury to tell us what kind of doo-doo we’re in.


You would have thought as the Chancellor (she was once an economist with the Bank of England) she would already have a fair idea but clearly wasn’t going to tell her plans prior to the General Election.

That’s why we hate politicians. Socialists are worse because they deceive and take your money claiming they are doing something for the poor. Using the word poor is great for PR.

So where is the money coming from?

It’s coming from people who have assets. Houses, savings, shares. It’s clear Labour want to bring in a wealth tax for the first time. They want to make the successful middle classes who already pay 30 per cent of income tax despite there being only one per cent of them, pay even more to subsidise the lives of the skint and the idle.

The kind of people who I can assure you won’t be paying is the 47 per cent of the country who don’t pay a penny in tax right now. Either they are unemployed, on benefit of some kind (they’ve discovered if you can create a health issue you claim even more) or very quietly working the underground economy.

On top of that, expect the rate of inheritance tax to go up to 50 per cent. And they might even extend your ability to gift money without it being a tax issue beyond the current seven years. Some clapped-out minister referred to clamping down on ‘’intergenerational wealth’’ i.e. stopping you from handing down your cash to your kids.

The Labour idea is to hand the money to somebody else’s kids who haven’t done a day’s work in their lives and live in a council house where they get a two-bedroomed in Camden for £600 a month which would cost £2,400 privately. That, to my mind, should be a taxable gain.

Finally, expect capital gains tax to rise. That would mean if you decided that your pension wouldn’t be enough and thought some 20 years to buy a two-bedroomed flat and rent it out, when it comes to selling instead of being it 24 per cent, you could see it rising to 45 per cent.

So, you took the risk and the government takes the majority of gains to give it to a lot of people who are already receiving a tremendous subsidy from the middle classes.

All of this is shocking news and I imagine there will be an ‘’emergency’’ budget announcing these tax increases by November at the latest.

Sir Tony Blair believes that the situation in the UK is even worse economically than Reeves. Privately she says she needs another £15billion, Blair’s think tank says it's £59billion at the end of five years.

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Have you noticed the Socialists all say our problems will disappear with growth? In the state system, that is impossible as there is something blocking growth; it is called the trade union movement.

They want to keep the way they do things unchanged but receive a nice annual pay rise and an increase in annual holidays every year. No wonder our productivity is so awful. Idle employees are just as guilty. They need to work harder. A work-life balance is not possible if you want your business to succeed.

Under AI, Blair believes that 15 per cent of all state jobs will disappear. That is the good news. The bad news is that they will almost certainly be kept on otherwise the trade unions will go on strike.

So, that is the difficult future we face.

It's always the same with Labour. Normally we find out we are skint at the end of their term. This time it’s at the beginning.

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