Labour’s best and brightest gathered in Liverpool this past week for their annual party conference, with the focus being on whether the beleaguered prime minister could convince his base that he’s the man to take the country forward after a torrid start to his time in power.
Needless to say, we at the TPA were less interested in the power struggle between Keir Starmer and his mate in Manchester, the mayor Andy Burnham, and far more interested in whether Labour’s supposedly sharpest minds were able to come up with the solutions to the country’s dire problems. We were poring over speeches and reports to try and detect a hint - any hint - that Labour had any answers that go beyond just higher taxes and higher spending.
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We wish we could give you better news, but little came out of the conference other than a clear indication that the government is set to lift the two child benefit cap, and a commitment to hand out gold plated pensions to local councillors (more on that later).
Our chief executive, John O’Connell, was particularly unimpressed with the speeches from Rachel Reeves and Starmer. John told national media that Reeves “wanted her speech to sound bold and bullish, but it came across as hollow, hopelessly out of touch, and ignorant of the damage her policies are causing for small businesses, family farmers and ordinary taxpayers alike.”
And John couldn’t contain his fury when Starmer had the brass neck to describe his vision as a “Britain built for all”, with John’s saying in response that this “government has nothing to offer taxpayers and sees them as merely cash cows to feed an ever more gluttonous public sector.”
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TPA investigators exposed the jaw-dropping dishonesty of Starmer’s claim of a “Britain built for all” with a dossier she drew up for the Express which highlighted the huge swathes of British society which have been ruthlessly crushed by Starmer’s high tax crusade. She highlighted the pubs shutting their doors as a result of the job tax, the family farms and family businesses on the brink and the dozens of private schools forced to close. All of it the direct consequence of Labour’s economic policies.
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Last week we put out an appeal for donations to help us fund a new podcast and media studio, to ensure that the TPA is fit and firing for the 21st century. We were overwhelmed by the extraordinary generosity of you, our supporters, and as a result of your donations we will be able to build our studio faster than we expected.
That means our studio is out of action for a couple of weeks, giving us a headache as to how to record our podcast. Fortunately, we had Mike Denham, former TPA chairman, and Sir John Redwood, former MP for Wokingham and one of Margaret Thatcher’s top policy brains coming into TPA HQ for an event on whether we are living in the 1970s, with this proving to be the perfect opportunity to film our first TPA podcast on camera.
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Recorded just hours after Starmer's speech at Labour conference, the timing simply couldn’t have been better. Strikes, inflation, crippling debt levels, weak economic growth and a government which has no idea what to do about it.
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ThinkTent at Conservative Party Conference
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Here we go. With the Tories languishing in the polls while their policy ‘renewal’ efforts continue, the TPA team are off to Manchester to put the focus on the issues facing taxpayers.
The twelfth annual ThinkTent gets underway this afternoon, kicking off a jam-packed agenda of panels, interviews, and debates. Starting as we mean to continue, we’ll be making the case for major reform of the tax system, an area of policy the last Conservative government failed on spectacularly. Time to put them back on the straight and narrow…
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As with all sessions in the ThinkTent, if you’re not in Manchester, you can catch all the action on the dedicated ThinkTent website. So, if after your Sunday roast you fancy relaxing with some political debate and hearing about how we can simplify and cut taxes, Look no further.
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Between now and the close of the conference, we’ll be playing host to senior members of the shadow cabinet, policy makers, and journalists. Chris Philp will be talking about immigration, shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately about welfare reform. Lord Frost, Richard Fuller, and Andrew Griffith will discuss tackling Britain’s spending addiction. ‘Rising stars’ Katie Lam and Nick Timothy will be putting in appearances and top policy wonks will be setting out their stalls at the TPA’s version of Question Time on Monday evening. All culminating in shadow chancellor, Sir Mel Stride, joining us for a live recording of a nation of taxpayers.
If you’re at the conference, you know where to head to get the uncensored debate and argument you won’t find anywhere else. Check out the full line-up (and all of the live streams if you want to enjoy the action from home) here.
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Stop gold-plated pensions for councillors
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They’ve really gone round the bend. I’m not sure how else to put it. Of all the not-so-bright-ideas that came out of Labour’s conference in Liverpool, this one really takes the biscuit. Steve Reed, the housing, communities, and local government secretary, took the utterly bizarre step of announcing his plan to let councillors join the local government pension scheme.
If you’re not familiar with what this is, it’s the already unaffordable pension scheme offered to those working for local authorities. And Labour’s idea is to expand it to those serving on councils too, adding to the extraordinary burden on local taxpayers. Why are they doing it? Because councillors “deserve it” apparently. These are the same councillors who have been voting through tax increases year after year!
These gold-plated pensions give their members a guaranteed income in retirement, a benefit that essentially doesn’t exist outside of the public sector because it’s so expensive.
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As Elliot Keck explains in the video above, rather than focus extra cash on frontline local services, councils will now be able to opt in to the scheme, and send ratepayers the bill.
Which is where you come in.
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We need to do everything we can to stop this ridiculous idea from progressing and for ministers to immediately scrap the plans. We’ve launched a tool that enables you to write to your MP, demanding that the plans are dropped and cash focussed on providing the services local people rely on, not cushy retirements for councillors.
Write to your MP now by clicking here and making your voice heard today!
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Prosperity through Growth
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It’s a concept that seems to have escaped this government but, as Art Laffer illustrated with his eponymous Laffer Curve, you can only raise taxes so far before you end up raising less revenue. And indeed, cutting taxes will often lead to an increase in the money raised. An argument that politicians seem to need reminding of far more regularly than they should and one treasury officials should also pay attention to.
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So with the man himself visiting these shores later this month, we wanted to share with you details of how you can hear from Dr Laffer yourself. The Jobs Foundation, established by our very own founder Lord Matthew Elliott, have teamed up with the LSE Hayek Programme to host ‘the father of supply-side economics’ as he promotes his new book, Prosperity through Growth.
Get your free tickets to this fascinating evening here.
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Britain’s Quangos Uncovered
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A few weeks ago, we unveiled our quango database, an invaluable resource for taxpayers which lays out in detail the hundreds of arms length bodies which really rule the roost.
The wonk in charge of this mammoth project, Callum McGoldrick, put pen to paper in a fascinating piece for CapX this week in which he laid out why so many ministers seem to be entirely content with this situation.
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As Callum put it: “With so many quangos performing so many functions, no minister can possibly keep control. And when things go wrong, ministers simply deflect responsibility. A convenient arrangement.”
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The sugar tax is helping no one
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This week's blog takes aim at one of the nanny state’s most patronising policies, the sugar tax. New figures show receipts from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy have fallen for the second year running, down to £327 million. Ministers once promised “every penny” would go to tackling childhood obesity. Surprise, surprise, that pledge was quietly dropped, and now it’s just another line on the Treasury’s balance sheet.
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Shimeon Lee sets out how the sugar tax is a perfect example of the state’s hypocrisy, relying on “bad” behaviour to fund its ever-growing appetite for spending, even as it tries to stamp it out. It’s part of a wider web of sin taxes that cost taxpayers £38.8 billion last year, from alcohol and tobacco to packaging and flights, with salt, snacks, and vapes next in the crosshairs.
However, these taxes are volatile, unsustainable, and deeply unfair, punishing ordinary people for personal choices while the state invents new vices to tax. As Shimeon warns, once you let the government police your diet, it won’t stop there. Today it’s sugar, tomorrow it could be private healthcare, schools, or even your family holiday.
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Sadiq Khan has come under fire this week for splashing out £280,000 of taxpayers’ money on a Trafalgar Square “cultural celebration”, while knife crime spirals and police budgets buckle.
The Mayor signed off on the spending for Black in the Square, an event billed as a celebration of Black Londoners’ culture and creativity. But with the Met Police facing a £260 million shortfall and council tax precepts climbing, it’s another sign the Mayor has his priorities all wrong.
Callum McGoldrick told the Express: “ Londoners will be dismayed to see their money squandered on vanity festivals while the city faces far deeper problems. With knife crime soaring and council tax precepts having jumped, the Mayor seems more interested in parading at parties than tackling the issues that matter.” |
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Benjamin Elks
Grassroots Development Manager
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