The Growth Plan

Lord Mackinlay of Richborough Excerpts

Friday 23rd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

If bankers are working in London, they are taxed in London; if they move out of the UK, they are taxed elsewhere, and we do not see a penny of tax revenue. Financial services are not just about the City of London; they are also provided in Edinburgh and a whole range of other towns. We have to be at the apex of the global financial system. We have to attract the talent, then we can tax it and use the revenue for public services.

[Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet) (Con)]

May I offer the Chancellor my congratulations on his growth plan? He will know of my interest in tax; the Register of Members’ Financial Interests will show it. I am delighted to see lower and simpler taxes. I think it is fair to say that the Conservatives’ inheritance of the claim to be a party of low taxes had become somewhat opaque and confused in recent years. Does he agree with my simplistic summary of what he is saying today: that this party believes in taking a smaller percentage out of a bigger pie, rather than in the state nicking more from a static and diminishing pie? The latter seems to be the message of the Opposition parties—except for the Democratic Unionist party, of course.

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

We openly repudiate a socialist vision of society. We do not believe that the state should take more and more of people’s income. We think that people should keep more and more of their earnings.