Governments raise taxes for two reasons. The first is obvious: to fund public services. The second is political, and every party does it. Tories tend to cut taxes for groups they favour, such as homeowners and pensioners. Labour goes the other way, targeting those it finds politically inconvenient or ideologically suspect. Under Keir Starmer’s government, that list grows by the day.
Reeves has already hiked our taxes by £40billion, pushing the burden to a post-war high. This autumn she’s coming back for another £20billion. Or maybe £30billion. She’ll claim it’s to “fill the black hole” or “fix the foundations”. But that’s not what’s really going on here.
Today’s Labour Party doesn’t just dislike the super-rich. It’s coming after farmers trying to pass on land. Entrepreneurs who build businesses. Savers planning for retirement.
It has a little list – and it’s coming for them all.
Parents paying school fees. Pensioners with private medical cover. People who invest, own a second property, or hope to pass something on when they die.
Labour’s message is blunt: success will be punished. This isn’t a government pursuing fair taxation. It’s an activist class settling scores. What drives policy now isn’t revenue, but resentment.
Activists, think tanks and Labour insiders are constantly pushing for new levies, ignoring the fact that the fiscal burden is already at a record high.
They want it higher still – and don’t care about the impact on business confidence, economic growth or people’s desire to get ahead.
Take the wealth tax. They’ve been demanding one for months, despite warnings from left-leaning groups like Tax Policy Associates and Tax Research UK that such taxes fail wherever they’ve been tried.
That didn’t stop Neil Kinnock from demanding one last week. Now he’s at it again, calling for VAT on private medical bills. This is pure class war.
Remember when Keir Starmer said he’d rather see a loved one languish on an NHS waiting list than go private?
But it won’t just be the wealthy who pay. As I wrote yesterday, a pensioner needing a dental check-up or physio session could suddenly face 20% extra on the bill, courtesy of Lord Kinnock.
The NHS is already buckling. Pushing patients back into it won’t help.
Labour’s VAT raid on private schools has already triggered dozens of closures, piling more pressure on state schools. The tax is likely cost as much as it raises. But again, that’s not the point. Punishment is the point.
As Reeves proudly declared: “For me, this is really personal”. That says it all. Pure grudge politics.
Every option for raising taxes in her autumn Budget reeks of class warfare.
Cutting the ISA allowance? That hits middle-class savers. Slashing higher-rate pension relief? A blow to workers saving responsibly.
Hiking capital gains tax or tightening inheritance rules? That’s a double tax on ambition.
Stamp duty hikes, higher council tax on family homes, new taxes on trusts – it’s a grab bag of envy-led measures.
Starmer insists that “those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden.” But they already do.
The top 10% of income taxpayers contribute 60% of all income tax receipts, according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance, and that percentage is rising fast.
No wonder non-doms and millionaires are glancing at the exits. They know there’s four more years of this.
The tax system won’t survive if those who fund it walk away. Reeves has already discovered that hiking taxes can actually cut revenues, but doesn’t care.
Labour isn’t “fixing the foundations”, as she claims. It’s waging a vendetta. This isn’t tax policy. It’s class war.