‘We were not cursing under our breath’: Labour MP claims Tory non-dom tax scrapping is ‘amusing’

‘We were not cursing under our breath’: Labour MP claims Tory non-dom tax scrapping is ‘amusing’

‘We were not cursing under our breath’ Labour MP claims Tory non-dom scrapping as "amusing"

GB News
Gabrielle Wilde

By Gabrielle Wilde


Published: 19/03/2024

- 13:18

Updated: 19/03/2024

- 13:32

In last Wednesday's budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt committed to cutting the tax status for non-doms

Labour MP Darren Jones has claimed that the opposition found the Conservative idea to scrap non-dom tax "amusing."

In the budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt committed to cutting the tax status for non-doms, short for non-domiciled individuals, who live in the UK but whose permanent home is abroad.


The tax break allows people with non-dom status to only pay tax on money earned in the UK, meaning their overseas income and wealth are not subject to UK tax for up to 15 years. But the Chancellor has cut that to four years, a move expected to raise £2.7bn a year towards tax cuts.

Labour announced the idea in 2022, but the Conservative Party seemed opposed to the idea until the recent budget.

Speaking to GB News Breakfast, Labour MP and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said: "We were not cursing when the Tories took the non-dom status from us. We found it quite amusing, to be honest.

Labour MP Darren Jones

Labour MP Darren Jones claimed that the Labour Party found it "amusing"

GB News

"We'd been arguing for that for years as an effective way to raise the taxes that are so important for our public services.

"Until about the week before the budget, Jeremy Hunt and the Conservatives were saying that the plan was not effective and that it wouldn't raise any money. [They said] that it would cost the country money.

"Now in the budget, they've taken our policy and said it's going to raise over £3 billion a year. We agree with that assessment. We think that they should have done it years ago.

"We will set out in our manifesto all of our policies being fully funded and fully costed.

"There are still measures that we've announced on this side of the manifesto, for example, closing the VAT loophole on private schools and dealing with private equity taxation for people who buy and sell businesses.

Rachel Reeves

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves thinks the Labour Party will be as "radical as Thatcher"

PA

"That should raise an immediate injection of cash for our public services. But again, this is why you've got to get back to growth.

"If our country had been growing on average at the same rate as other wealthy countries, we'd have £50 billion more each year to pay for public services. But we don't because the Tories have failed to get the economy growing. And that's why we're in recession right now."

The MP also discussed how Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves told finance and banking leaders that Labour would be as economically radical as Margaret Thatcher.

GB News host Isabel asked whether this is "just a ploy to woo" Conservative voters.


Isabel Webster, Eamonn Holmes, Darren Jones

​Darren Jones outlined Labour's plan for economic growth 

GB News

Jones responded: "The Labour Party is now a party under Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves for government, and that means being a party for the whole country.

"I know we talk a lot about red wall, blue wall. I think the Liberal Democrats say there's a yellow wall as well. There are probably some others. But actually, we're appealing to voters across the whole country.

"That means being in the newspapers, being on the TV channels, being wherever people are, and having conversations with them about our plans for the country.

"Showing that the Labour Party has changed under Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves's leadership, and that we're ready to transform the country on their behalf. People are going to have to see something."

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