Labour will “tax the living daylights out of your family’s future”, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride has claimed. Opening the Conservatives’ opposition day debate, Sir Mel insisted “nothing is safe from the tax man” under this Labour Government.
Challenging the Government to rule out new property taxes, he insisted that MPs and the public “deserve answers” about the Chancellor’s plans after a “cruel summer of speculation”. Sir Mel said: “The Chancellor cannot borrow more and has shown no ability to control spending.
“That can only leave tax, but which taxes will it be? Are family homes safe, or are they simply fair game?” He added: “Under this Labour Government, nothing is safe. Not your home, not your pension, not your savings, not your business, not your farm, not that which you simply wish to pass on to your own children.
“The message to hard-working people up and down our country could not be clearer: Labour will always duck the hard choices.
“They will tax the living daylights out of your family’s future to pay for their failure.”
Speculation emerged over the summer about how the Chancellor will balance the books in her autumn budget, with the NIESR economic think tank saying last month that Rachel Reeves was set for a £41 billion shortfall on her self-imposed rule of balancing day-to-day spending with tax receipts in 2029-30.
Reports have suggested she is considering ending the exemption from capital gains tax for more expensive homes, introducing an annual property levy or making changes to inheritance tax.
The shadow chancellor told MPs that taxing wealth or assets is “the road to ruin” and outlined why he opposes Labour introducing any new property taxes.
He argued that changes to private residence relief under the capital gains tax regime would “strike right at the heart of our country as a property-owning democracy, people being penalised simply for selling up and moving home”.
He added it would have “clear implications for bunging up the property market” and for individuals moving areas or downsizing.
Sir Mel went on to assert that an annual tax on homes would be “a tax on aspiration” and on those people who have “saved hard” and managed to get on the property ladder.
He said: “What about those who are asset-rich but income-poor and can’t afford to pay them? Are they expected to sell up?”
Under existing UK rules, gifts made more than seven years before a person’s death are exempt from inheritance tax.
The shadow chancellor opposed any changes to the gifting regime to increase liability to inheritance tax, telling MPs: “We say enough is enough. We should not be punishing parents who wish to pass something onto their children.”
However, MPs voted to reject the Tory motion condemning potential changes to property taxes, with 335 votes to 98, majority 237.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said the Government would not “respond to speculation” ahead of the Budget and hit out at the previous Conservative administration’s management of the economy.
He said: “Over 14 years, the last government made wrong choices time and again.
“Their many prime ministers and their many chancellors all embrace the cycle of austerity, debt and decline. We will never repeat that.”
He added: “The Budget the Chancellor delivers in November will be carefully considered and designed to get the balance right between making working people better off, raising enough money to fund our public services and to get the country moving once again, through investment and growth.”
Asked whether the Government would look again at changes to welfare, he said that there are already measures going through Parliament and being investigated by the Department for Work and Pensions.
MPs also voted 158 to 334, majority 176, to reject a Conservative motion to regret the “catastrophic choices made by the Government causing the closure, downsizing and lack of hiring” by the hospitality sector.