The heat is on John Healey as he lines up next week’s Budget. And things are starting to get frenzied.
Chancellor John Healey looks set to do more harm than good next week (Image: Getty)
Yesterday, in a mad moment of optimism, I suggested Healey might go easy on the tax hikes next Wednesday. Those were the signals coming out of Number 11, with suggestions the chancellor would deliver a “do no harm” Budget on October 28. Given all the harm Rachel Reeves inflicted during her two horror Budgets, that would be a step up. Doing actual good is too much to ask for, I suppose, especially from a Labour chancellor. But it’s better than the outright vandalism we’ve seen.
I’m not so optimistic today. As Healey’s fiscal headroom shrinks yet again, he’s starting to show signs of panic, as the signals get worryingly mixed. Last week, for example, he called financial services one of the “jewels in the crown” of the UK economy. Yet later that same day, he signalled he may blitz the banks anyway. Industry insiders accused Healey of “breathtaking hypocrisy”. That’s the Labour I know. It’s spotted the crown jewels, so of course it’s going to tax them.
A bank raid could raise a few billion and bolster Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s socialist credentials. The banks won’t win much sympathy, but those taxes will be passed on to customers through lower savings rates, higher borrowing costs and reduced lending. Just what we don’t need. Andy Burnham and Healey claim they want growth, but today we’ve learned that they’re plotting yet another raid on small businesses. What are they on?
Healey is considering charging income tax when family businesses are handed on to the next generation. A family business worth £1million could face a £450,000 tax bill under the reported plan. Reeves has already undermined the case for building a family business by slashing inheritance tax relief. Now Healey could destroy owners’ retirement plans and make them more likely to shut up shop than pass their business on.
Family businesses are the backbone of the economy, yet Labour seems determined to tax them out of existence. Wiping out entrepreneurs while transferring the proceeds to wasteful state quangos such as Ed Miliband’s Great British Energy is beyond madness.
Healey should scrap Reeves’s inheritance tax raid on family businesses, just as she should reverse the IHT blitz on farmers. We should be encouraging Britons to build businesses and pass them on, not punishing them for doing so.
Healey’s raid might raise a few hundred million, but wll cost us multiples more if people give up and entrepreneurs leave the country.
Almost one in three of Britain’s wealthiest are considering leaving the UK amid growing tax fears. Labour likes to pretend they aren’t leaving, but they are. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index suggests billionaires with a combined net worth of £120billion have left since the 2024 general election.
The Left’s next response is to say let them go, we don’t need them. But we do. If the rich aren’t paying taxes here, ordinary people will pay even more. Naturally, there’s no sign that Healey plans to cut public spending by so much as a penny. Now that would stir panic on the left.
For a heady moment, I hoped Healey might keep the damage to a minimum. Now he looks set to do more harm than good, just like Reeves. We will find out in nine days.
Sky News viewers fume ‘it should be illegal’ in furious Labour bias row
The complaints followed Yvette Cooper’s appearance on the programme.
Yvette Cooper was interviewed by Labour peer Ayesha Hazarika on Sky News (Image: Sky News)
Sky News was flooded with complaints after Health Secretary Yvette Cooper appeared on the programme on Sunday (October 18). Cooper, who is married to Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls, discussed various issues as she was interviewed by Ayesha Hazarika. Hazarika questioned the Labour politician about the current investigation into whether the NHS records of a man killed by a tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park last week were accessed inappropriately. They also spoke about the war in Ukraine, with the politician revealing that the government has taken a “different view” to the crisis than that of US President Donald Trump.
But it was the Sky News Sunday Morning presenter that sparked outrage, as Hazarika is a Labour peer.
One argued that it should be “illegal” for someone working for a political party to be interviewed by another who openly supports that party.
Others believe that politicians should not be permitted to pursue careers in broadcast journalism, as it undermines impartiality.
Additional viewers were confused by Cooper addressing Hazarika as a “journalist”.
“This is mental. It is completely and utterly mental. This should literally be illegal. It is not unreasonable to ban politicians from being broadcast journalists FFS,” one fumed on X.
The bias accusations continued, as another said: “It’s a joke. Nobody from either House should be presenting news/politics on any channel, go do your own podcast if you must.”
A third added: “She’s a Labour peer and should not be interviewing her!! Typical mainstream drivel.”
A fourth weighed in: “Ayesha is a journalist? Which paper or news outlet did she do her apprenticeship or grad scheme on? Where did she do her NCTJ, her undergrad or post grad degree or qualification? I know she has a law degree & did a comedy course but the journalism training must have passed me by.”
Someone else claimed: “If this was a Tory MP being interviewed by a Tory peer on GB News, there would be outrage of impartiality from everyone.”
During the interview, Cooper said people “need to be sacked” if patient records were accessed wrongly. William Chapman was mauled to death last week after he jumped into a tiger enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
Shortly after, Yorkshire Ambulance Service Trust said there may have been two separate incidents involving two members of staff who accessed, or attempted to access, medical information “without a legitimate reason to do so” following the incident.
Cooper said: “I take this extremely seriously. I know there’s a specific investigation going into that case, but we just need to be absolutely clear.
“No member of NHS staff should be accessing records that they do not need to see for medical care and reasons, simply for something to do with voyeurism or what is in the news, or any of that kind of reason.”
She added: “We have to have firm action against these people. Should be if there are breaches, then people actually need to be sacked.”