Keir Starmer refuses to rule out raising capital gains tax – UK politics live | Politics

The SNP says that Douglas Ross has, in reality, been forced out as leader by the Scottish Tories and that he should resign as an MSP immediately. Commenting on Ross’s announcement about standing down as leader after the election, the SNP’s Seamus Logan said:

Douglas Ross must resign as an MSP today. It’s clear he’s been forced out as Scottish Tory leader after his shameful behaviour over David Duguid and his growing expenses scandal. Voters deserve a dedicated MSP – not one who is hedging his bets in case he loses the election.

Logan is the SNP candidate in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, where Ross is the Tory candidate, and favourite to win. Duguid, a former Scotland Office minister, was the Tory candidate in the seat until he was elbowed aside by the party leadership last week, supposedly on the grounds that his health was not good enough because he was still recovering from a serious illness.

Reform UK has proposed raising the personal tax allowance for income tax from £12,570 to £20,000. At a news conference this morning, it said that seven million people would be taken out of tax by this measure, which it described as its “Great British tax cut”, and it said it would cover the £40bn cost by ending interest payments on quantitative easing.

In a briefing explaining the proposal, Reform UK said:

The cost of this measure is estimated at £40bn pa (depending on employment numbers) which will be mainly funded by ending the Bank of England’s current voluntary payment of base rate interest on the printed money reserves, known as quantitative easing (QE) reserves. This transfers some £30-40bn per year of interest payments (at current interest rates) to big banks from taxpayers and is neither necessary nor contractual. Other central banks are not paying this, nor should the Bank of England.

To understand this concept, imagine printing a £20 note on your home printer and giving it to your neighbour who is having a tough time. Having done him a major favour, why would you pay him interest every year on the money you gave him? This is what QE did: saved the nation from going bust in 2008 and 2020 – so the Bank of England should not pay ongoing interest on the money reserves that it printed.

Defending the plan, Richard Tice, the Reform UK chair, said:

I have been raising this for over 12 months. Journalists such as the FT Economics commentator Chris Giles and Robert Peston agree with me on the principle of this QE interest issue, as do two former deputy governors of the Bank of England, Sir Paul Tucker and Charlie Bean. Furthermore the leftwing think tank New Economics Foundation, Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and independent economists like Julian Jessop and Patrick Minford also agree. The fact that neither the chancellor, nor the Treasury, nor the Bank of England have proved why I am wrong, but instead have been silent on this issue, is because they are embarrassed to admit that I am right.

Reform said it would also raise the inheritance tax threshold to £2m, with estates worth more than that taxed at 20% (not 40%, the current rate); raise the threshold at which small business start paying VAT from £90,000 to £150,000; and abolish the IR35 tax rules for the self-employed. It said these three measures would cost between £5bn and £10bn a year, which could be funded by public sector efficiency savings.

Dharshini David, the BBC’s chief economic proposal, says the QE proposal is one that have been floated before, but not advocated by any of the main parties.

Rishi Sunak has paid tribute to Douglas Ross following the announcement that Ross is going to stand down as Scottish Tory leader after the election.

In a pooled broadcast interview, asked if this was evidence of “more chaos” in the Conservative party, Sunak rejected that. He went on:

You can read Douglas’s statement about his reasons, and I respect his decision. It’s been a pleasure to work with him over the time that I’ve been prime minister.

He’s been a steadfast champion for the union but also he and I’ve worked together on delivering two freeports for Scotland, attracting jobs and investment, standing up to the SNP’s misguided gender recognition reforms and also being unashamedly champions of Scotland’s North Sea energy industry – the only party to consistently have done that. So I think that’s a pretty good track record that Douglas can be proud of.

PA Media has filed this summary of the key points from the Lib Dem manifesto.

The economy

The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto vows to repair the UK’s “broken relationship with Europe”, signalling that the party would want to redraw the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU as part of a series of measures aimed at improving economic stability and providing growth.

It would also seek to create “long-term help with the cost of living”, cutting energy bills through an upgrade programme, tackling rising food prices through a national food strategy, and getting mortgage rates under control through “careful economic management”.

The environment

Sewage is the Lib Dems’ headline pledge from their natural environment manifesto chapter.

It reads: “We will end the sewage scandal by transforming water companies into public benefit companies, banning bonuses for water bosses until discharges and leaks end, and replacing Ofwat with a tough new regulator with powers to prevent sewage dumps.”

According to party proposals, legally binding targets to prevent sewage dumping into bathing waters and highly sensitive natures sites would come into force by 2030.

Health

On health, the Lib Dem manifesto promises everyone in England “the right to see a GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to, with 8,000 more GPs to deliver on it”.

The announcement was trailed by the party in advance of the manifesto launch as part of a £9.4bn package for the NHS and social care in England, paid for by hiking taxes for banks and closing finance loopholes used by the super-rich.

The Liberal Democrats also want to guarantee access to NHS dentistry for those in need of urgent care, and they promise to implement the recommendations of the UK infected blood inquiry in full, including “full and fair compensation to all victims of the scandal in a timely and transparent manner”.

Care

The Lib Dems want to give unpaid carers a right to paid carers’ leave from work and a statutory guarantee of regular respite breaks.

The manifesto includes a pledge to expand access to carers’ allowance, and to stop pursuing anyone who has been overpaid the benefit in the past.

To create a longer-term settlement on social care, the party wants to establish a “cross-party commission” to create agreement about a sustainable funding model.

Pensions and benefits

The Lib Dems have vowed to maintain the triple lock on the state pension, in a similar move to Labour and the Conservatives.

They have also pledged to ensure women born in the 1950s who have been impacted by pension age changes are “treated fairly and properly compensated”.

Education

The manifesto pledges to increase school and college funding per pupil “above the rate of inflation every year” in its education offer.

The party also wants to invest in new school and college buildings to end the “scandal” of the crumbling schools estate.

Just over a year ago, Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, gave a speech in which she promised to completely abolish the free hours system of subsidising childcare places, saying it was ineffective and inefficient. Soon afterwards Jeremy Hunt announced a massive expansion of that scheme, and suddenly Labour has discovered it quite likes it after all.

Providers argue it does not adequately fund the number of places it is supposed to. But speaking to reporters on the campaign trail today, the Labour leader Keir Starmer appeared to disagree.

“[The free hours scheme] is a good plan, but it is not deliverable,” he said. He would not commit to any extra funding to make it more deliverable, focusing instead on Labour’s promise to add an extra 100,000 places through primary schools.

Another thing Starmer doesn’t want to talk about is exactly how and when Labour might impose its tax rise on private schools. Some parents are concerned it might hit them before the next school year, while others want to know what will happen if they have already paid several years’ worth of fees up front.

“We will set all this out if we are elected into government in our first budget,” he said. “What I’m not going to do four weeks before the election, is to preempt that budget.”

Keir Starmer has been out on the campaign trail this morning, taking part in an arts and crafts session with primary school children to promote his party’s new policy of funding 100,000 extra childcare places.

That policy is one of a number of manifesto commitments that are being funded by specific tax rises. However the problem for Starmer if he gets into Number 1, as Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has repeatedly argued, is that existing levels of government spending already need substantial extra funding, whether through taxes or borrowing.

Asked about this by journalists following him on the campaign trail, the Labour leader said the gap could be filled with extra growth. He said:

I know what the experts and commentators are saying, and what underpins what they’re saying is that you can’t carry on like this without a plan for growth.

It is always tempting for a government to go to tax and spend, but I’m not going to pull those levers. We don’t intend to pull those levers. We want to go to the lever marked growth.

Tellingly however, he did not deny his party is considering a capital gains tax rise if it wins the election – for the second time in two days. The Liberal Democrats say they would raise more than £5bn from raising capital gains tax. (See 12.13pm.)

Starmer also insisted Labour would not “go back to austerity”, despite projections showing that current spending levels would mean heavy cuts to unprotected departments during the next parliament.

Here are the two pages from the Lib Dems’ costings document showing where the Lib Dems would spend £26.8bn a year more by 2028-29, and how they would raise £26.9bn a year in tax to pay for this.

Lib Dem plans to raise spending by £26.8bn

Lib Dem plans to raise taxes by £26.9bn

Rishi Sunak has denied suggestions he considered resigning over the weekend in the light of the row about his D-day snub.

In a broadcast interview shown on Sky News, asked if he had considered standing down, he replied: “No, of course not.”

At the weekend there were some rumours on social media suggesting Sunak might resign as party leader over the incident. None of them seemed well sourced, but on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, was asked if he was confident Sunak would remain party leader until polling day (he was), and the question did not seem 100% ridiculous, in the light of how badly people were reacting to Sunak’s D-day error.

Davey has finished his speech. He is now taking questions.

Q: [From the BBC’s Vicki Young] You have been good at grabbing attention in the campaign. But after the election, what influence will you have?

Davey says he thinks politicians should not take themselves too seriously. (He is referring to his campaign photo opportunities, like falling off a paddle board.) But they should take the concerns of voters seriously, he says.

He says, if there are lots of good Lib Dem MPs in parliament, they will be able to affect the debate.

Q: The last time you launched a manifesto, stopping Brexit was front and centre. Now Brexit is not even mentioned until page 116, the penultimate page. Would you try to rejoin the EU?

Davey says the Lib Dems “believe in the long term we need to be back at the heart of Europe”.

But that is not going to be easy, he says. The Tories have undermined trust; people in the EU do not trust the UK anymore.

He says the UK is going to have to proceed step by step.

But the UK could get a better trade deal with the EU, and allow young people free travel over the EU. He goes on:

It is going to take time, regrettable, because the Conservatives have done so much damage.