Labour has been pushing the Government this month over unfair tax breaks and loopholes that benefit a wealthy elite. We voted to close glaring loopholes in the Government’s Windfall Tax, which currently lets oil and gas giants off the hook for £17 billion. Their rising profits are our rising energy prices. It’s wrong that the Government is leaving the burden on struggling households whilst companies are raking in staggering profit.
We have also been pushing the Government to end charitable status for private schools, which would free up £1.7 billion every year to be pumped back into the state sector. Private schools aren’t charities. With the rich getting even richer on the Tories’ watch, the funding gap between kids in state and private schools has doubled since 2010. Rishi Sunak’s impassioned defence of these unjustified tax breaks at PMQs, even as he attacked key workers for calling strikes show how out of touch the Tories are. They would sooner see state schools with overworked teachers, hungry pupils and crumbling buildings than end subsidies for private schools.
Finally, Labour has been pushing once again for an end to non-dom status, something which has personally saved our super rich Prime Minister and his family up to £20 million. At a time when the Government claims to be scratching around for money, what possible justification is there for letting a small group of very rich people off the hook for billions of pounds?