Sir Keir Starmer has signed Britain up to a new United Nations agreement which will include higher taxes on the wealthy. The move could risk frustrating the White House, with Donald Trump pulling the US out of the pact in June.
The Sevilla Agreement was adopted by all of the UN members this week, except for the US, and aims to tackle the growing gap between rich and poor nations and try to drum up the trillions of pounds needed to close it. The pact also paves the way for greater taxes on alcohol, tobacco and fossil fuels. The Conservatives have raised concerns over the deal, with Shadow Treasury Minister Gareth Davies accusing the Government of “outsourcing tax policy to organisations that don’t reflect the priorities of the British people”.
He told The Telegraph: “People want to see their taxes reduced and simplified, not increased and complicated to fund vacuous virtue signalling by global elites.
“This will only make it harder for a future government to reverse Labour’s tax rises.”
The newspaper reports that the UK has also signed up to a number of declarations on the side, one of which promotes taxes on unhealthy products like sugary drinks.
Senior UN official Marcos Neto said the agreement is about “about aligning public and private capital flows towards” sustainable development goals, the Paris Agreement and other international commitments.
He added it “outlines what to do with every kind of money – national, international, public, and private”.
One part of the agreement promotes “broadening of the tax base”, including getting stricter on the “informal sector” which includes cash-in-hand payments, The Telegraph reports.
It also states participating nations will “promote gender-responsive budgeting”, plus “advance discussion on gender-responsive taxation”.
Critics are said to be concerned that the move shows the Government is preparing to permanently put the UK under increased taxes.
It comes as Chancellor Rachel Reeves refuses to rule out tax rises in the autumn budget.
The agreement was adopted — without changes — in Sevilla, Spain, on Monday after it was hammered out in the run-up to the meeting.
The UN said there is an almost £3 trillion annual financing gap to promote development, bring millions of people out of poverty and help achieve the UN’s lagging Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
A senior US official previously said the Sevilla Agreement “crosses many of our red lines”.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his opening remarks on Monday that “financing is the engine of development” but the engine is “sputtering”.
The commitment calls for things including a minimum tax revenue of 15% of a country’s GDP to increase government resources and reforms to help countries cope with rising debt levels.