A Question Time audience member waded into the tax debate dominating the General Election – questioning why there are no political parties making a positive case for using fiscal levers.
Rishi Sunak has insisted that voting for Reform UK would be “handing Labour a blank cheque” as he played down a major opinion poll showing Nigel Farage’s party overtaking the Conservatives.
He told reporters at the G7 summit in Puglia: “We are only halfway through this election, so I’m still fighting very hard for every vote.
“And what that poll shows is – the only poll that matters is the one on July 4 – but if that poll was replicated on July 4, it would be handing Labour a blank cheque to tax everyone, tax their home, their pension, their car, their family, and I’ll be fighting very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“And actually, when I’ve been out and about talking to people, they do understand that a vote for anyone who is not a Conservative candidate is just a vote to put Keir Starmer in No 10.”
Labour has ruled out raising the rates of income tax, national insurance and VAT.
It has committed to charging VAT on private school fees, abolishing the non-dom tax status, and closing “loopholes” in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies.
But as this Question Time audience member points out, tax doesn’t have to be so toxic:
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