Latest news with #BritanniaCard
Daily Mirror
25-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Angela Rayner brutally savages Farage's 'sweetheart deal' with billionaires
Angela Rayner said she agreed with Labour Kanishka Narayan that Nigel Farage would 'betray' British workers by offering a 'sweetheart deal' to overseas billionaires Angela Rayner took a brutal swipe at Nigel Farage's botched "sweetheart deal" with overseas billionaires. Standing in for Keir Starmer at PMQs, the deputy Prime Minister lashed out at the Reform leader's 'Britannia Card' plan, which experts say will will give a £34billion "bonanza" to super-rich foreign tycoons. Ms Rayner said she agreed that this was a "betrayal" of working people - and claimed "the mask has slipped". She made the remarks after Mr Farage was mocked by Labour backbencher Kanishka Narayan. He asked the deputy PM: "The member for Clacton puts a singular burning injustice first - the plight of overseas billionaires. "Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree with his priority or with me, that the reform UK doing sweetheart deals with the super rich is a betrayal of British working people?" The Reform leader wants wealthy tycoons from overseas to pay a one-off fee of £250,000 in exchange for a string of tax breaks. But experts warn it could wipe a massive £34billion from tax revenues and give a massive tax windfall to overseas billionaires. Ms Rayner responded: "My honourable friend is absolutely right, the mask has slipped again this week. "The honourable member for Clacton (Mr Farage) demands billions more in unfunded tax cuts for the very richest while he marches through the lobby in the House of Commons to vote against sick pay for the lowest earners. "We know who will pay Reform tax breaks, Mr. Speaker, for overseas billionaires - tax hikes on working people and patients being charged to see their doctor. Labour won't let that happen." Earlier this week Mr Farage said he was "not clever enough" to answer questions about the hit to the UK's economy when challenged about the impact. He proposes creating a 'Britannia Card', which would see those who pay up offered a 10-year renewable residence permit and shielded from UK tax on their overseas income. They will also be spared having to pay inheritance tax. The "Robin Hood" tax would see revenues distributed between the 10% lowest earners. But analysis from the Tax Policy Associates found Mr Farage and co will offer a "much more generous regime for the very wealthy" than the Tories did. It said there would be "no wider economic benefit" from the windfall, which would be enjoyed by "a relatively small number of very wealthy people". It estimates this windfall would be worth £34billion lost to the Government over five years. Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves said: ' Nigel Farage 's new policy is quite simply a bonanza for billionaires. 'Not only is this a golden giveaway to the rich, but experts warn this will leave a massive black hole in the country's finances that working people will be left to pick up the bill for. 'Reform UK is not serious or credible. Every family in the country would foot the bill for their dangerous and unfunded Liz Truss style policies which would devastate Britain's economy.'
Metro
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Metro
Farage's £250k 'Robin Hood tax' is a free ride for non-doms, says reader
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments. Nigel Farage's so-called 'Robin Hood Tax' is an outrageous, Sheriff of Nottingham-style con (Metro, Tue). The Reform UK 'Britannia Card' idea is that non-doms, instead of paying tax annually like the rest of us, make a one-off payment of £250,000, which 'Hood' Farage promises will be used to benefit 'the poor'. According to the Chartered Institute of Taxation (using figures from HMRC) the tax yield from non-doms for the year ending April 5, 2022, averaged out at £120,000 each. So Farage's one-off payment amounts to just over two years of tax at 2021-2022 rates followed by a permanent free ride at the expense of other taxpayers. Public services, already cut to the bone, will get even worse and the poor will suffer to support the wealthy. Paul Johnson, Ilford Sir Keir Starmer has described Palestine Action group throwing paint over fighter planes at RAF Brize Norton (Metro, Tue) as 'disgraceful'. He is right, the lack of security that allowed it to happen is indeed appalling and, as the leader of the government that takes responsibility for it, the buck clearly stops with him. With his new-found humility, the prime minister could perhaps now thank the organisation that exposed the weakness. What if they had been terrorists? Phil Goater, Sunbury-on-Thames To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video How do you find a secret base in Iran? You look for the building guarded by a man with an AK-47. How do you find a secret base in Israel? You look for the building guarded by a man with an Uzi machine gun. How do you find a secret base in the UK? You look for the building guarded by nobody – they're all asleep and the personnel officer is in charge. Jeff Sutton, Erdington Dennis Fitzgerald (MetroTalk, Tue) claims we 'can't bomb people into peace, only into surrender'. He's wrong. When we bombed Nazi Germany into surrender, it led to the birth of a peaceful and democratic country. Why should Iran be any different? Most Iranians hate the murderous regime that stole their country 46 years ago. Israel understands this. That's why the Israeli Air Force targeted Iran's notorious Evin prison – not to harm civilians but to help those oppressed by the Ayatollahs' regime escape and get a chance at freedom. David Frencel, London Are you able to consider this witticism in keeping with the recent 'doctor jokes' theme for your excellent newspaper? More Trending Ronnie O'Sullivan went to the doctor recently and said, 'Doctor, I feel like a snooker ball.' The doc replied, 'Get to the back of the cue.' Stevie 'Whirlwind' Duggers, Sheffield Another doctor joke. I went to the doctor today to get a vaccine. Nervous, I asked, 'Is it going to hurt?' The doctor said, 'It will hurt a bit today but tomorrow will be fine.' Immediately I replied, 'Can we reschedule for tomorrow, then?' Pedro, Hammersmith MORE: The Metro daily cartoon by Guy Venables MORE: Met Police boss grilled into apologising to ITV's Selina Scott after vicious mugging MORE: Drug kingpins guilty of plot to murder rival and smuggling £5,000,000 of cocaine
The Guardian
24-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Reform's ludicrous ‘Britannia Card' is a masterpiece in political manoeuvring
In a political landscape where the traditional left struggles to even mention the working class, let alone articulate a compelling vision for them, Nigel Farage and Reform UK are playing a shrewd hand. This week they will add to their political momentum with a bold, headline-grabbing policy: the Britannia Card – a commitment to tax the rich to put money in the pockets of the poor. This isn't just policy; it's political theatre, designed to resonate deeply with an electorate hungry for tangible change, mixed with an idea of British patriotism. Reform's proposal is deceptively simple: anyone seeking to live in the UK must make an 'entry contribution' of £250,000. This substantial sum, the policy pledges, would then be directly redistributed to the lowest 10% of earners, making 2.5 million people between £600 and £1,000 better off a year, depending on uptake. This policy capitalises on a surging public appetite for wealth redistribution. Polls indicate that more than three-quarters of Britons, and 69% of Reform voters, believe the rich should be taxed more. The sheer simplicity of taxing new arrivals and directly putting that money into the hands of struggling families creates an easily digestible and highly memorable message. It also tackles a pervasive public cynicism: a distrust of politicians' ability to handle tax revenues. By hypothecating – ring-fencing – these funds directly for the poorest full-time workers, Reform bypasses the common fear that taxes disappear into a black hole of government spending. This populist appeal is not unique to Farage. Across the Atlantic, New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has gained significant traction with a similar approach: taxing the wealthy to fund free childcare. The lesson is clear: politicians who offer transparent, direct benefits, funded by those perceived to be able to afford it most, capture the public imagination. Of course, Farage is (annoyingly) a master of political manoeuvring, and the Britannia Card is no exception. While it promises to enrich the poor, it simultaneously offers a subtle tax break to the wealthiest. The proposal would be a significant boon to the global super-rich, because all their overseas income and assets would be exempt from UK taxation for a decade. Labour has been quick to point out that this could lead to a net decrease in tax income overall. But in the age of soundbites, such nuanced economic arguments often fall on deaf ears. The headline is what matters, and the headline here is 'money from the rich, for the poor'. Labour, meanwhile, seems to have retreated from the very ground that should be its natural habitat. Its reluctance to champion the working class, coupled with plans such as cutting personal independence payments (Pip), is a critical misstep. Governments get re-elected when people feel materially better off. The Biden administration's experience in the US is a stark reminder of this. The Labour leadership has wedded itself to a flawed assumption that aggregate economic growth, if it even materialises, will translate into a felt improvement for the working and middle classes. Labour's plans for increased investment, while needed, will take years to bear fruit. What is it offering to those struggling today? When I worked directly with progressive governments globally, we found that 'solidarity taxes' – similar in narrative to what Reform is proposing – can be highly effective. Uruguay's tax on the richest during Covid, designed to support the poorest, proved popular due to its transparency and the clear way in which it was communicated. Similar taxes were implemented in Germany during reunification and Japan in the aftermath of the second world war. The key is clarity and directness of purpose. Any government serious about addressing inequality should focus on taxing wealth. The latest Sunday Times rich list shockingly revealed that just 50 families now possess more wealth than the bottom 50% of the UK population. Much of this wealth, unlike income from work, cannot be solely attributed to 'hard graft', but is down to asset inflation. Crucially, the longstanding myth that millionaires will simply flee the country if taxed more heavily is being debunked. The Tax Justice Network – with Patriotic Millionaires UK and Tax Justice UK – has recently shown that supposed 'millionaire exoduses' are vastly exaggerated, and that tax is a minor factor in migration decisions for the tiny percentage of wealthy individuals who do move. Labour's current attempts to address wealth inequality, such as changes to inheritance tax for farmland and VAT on private schools, feel piecemeal. Rumours of a reversal on its non-dom tax policies suggest it remains susceptible to elite lobbying, further undermining its progressive credentials. Instead of dancing around the issue, Labour could, for instance, boldly propose a modest 2% annual tax on wealth exceeding £10m, to raise a significant £24bn annually. The crucial step then would be to articulate clearly how this new revenue would be used – perhaps to address the cost-of-living crisis by boosting social security. Perhaps the most potent lesson Labour can learn from Reform isn't about the specifics of the Britannia Card, but about the art of communication. While Rachel Reeves often speaks in a convoluted beige, Farage paints in bright, clear colours. He understands that political messaging, particularly on economic issues, needs to be immediate, impactful and easily understood. The very naming of the policy is a masterstroke of patriotic populism. The name also reminds us that we are in dangerous territory. The coupling of anti-immigration rhetoric with populist economic policies is a potent combination. Labour's true test lies not in outmanoeuvring Farage on his own turf, but in offering a courageous and convincing alternative: a clear, compelling narrative of shared prosperity, funded by those who can most afford it, for the benefit of all. Faiza Shaheen is a distinguished policy fellow at London School of Economics, and the incoming executive director of Tax Justice UK
Evening Standard
24-06-2025
- Business
- Evening Standard
Britain on track to lose 'unprecedented' 16,500 millionaires in 2025 amid high taxes and non-dom crackdown
Nigel Farage's Reform UK, who lead Labour in the latest YouGov poll by nine points, have also announced plans to introduce a 'Britannia Card' that will offer non-doms the chance to pay a one-off £250,000 fee to shield their global earnings from tax, with the proceeds going directly to the poorest 10 per cent of UK earners.
The Independent
23-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Will Reform's Britannia Card tax plan win back the super-rich?
In its latest stab at policymaking, Reform UK has come up with the 'Britannia Card'. It sounds like a kitsch gimmick from a building society, but it is actually the party's attempt to recast tax policy to attract 'wealth creators' to the UK. The policy supposedly offers a bonus to workers with the lowest incomes in the country, funded entirely from the one-off fees charged to non-doms – billed fancifully as a kind of Robin Hood tax. What's the deal with the Britannia Card? It is not completely clear, and much depends on how many very rich people come to Britain in response to the offer. In principle, it works a bit like this: someone very rich pays HM Revenue and Customs a one-off 'landing fee' of some £250,000. For that modest (to them) sum, they are free of all UK tax on their income and wealth from overseas. That means no income tax, dividend taxes, and no capital gains taxes on such foreign income, indefinitely. As well as that, they get a 'Britannia residency permit' that gives free entry and exit from the UK, renewable every 10 years – but not automatic UK citizenship (this is Reform UK, after all). This new breed of 'non-dom' - they'd no longer have to prove even a tenuous previous family or business link to the UK – would only have to pay tax on their UK income, such as it is, and their spending – stamp duty on their estates and mansions, VAT and other tax on luxury cars, employers' national insurance for the butler, that sort of thing. Where does the Britannia money go? To the poor! All of it! That's the magic – the lowest 10 per cent of all full-time workers would get a payment directly from the HMRC, depending on how many Britannia cards are sold per annum. Reform UK suggests that if 10,000 plutocrats decided to relocate to Britain every year, this policy would raise £2.5bn annually, equivalent to £1,000 per lower-paid worker. Sounds great. Are there any catches? Yes. One is that Reform's calculations ignore that some of the sought-after wealthy would actually lose out under its non-dom system compared to the current Labour regime; for example highly-paid professionals with savings back home are currently free of UK income tax for the first four years they're in the UK and only have to lay a fee of £30,000 or £60,000 a year. Under the Reform policy, they'd be whacked with a £250,000 fee immediately, plus full tax on any UK income. What would Reform's cost? A great deal. The Britannia Card scheme suffers from a common economic phenomenon called the 'free rider' effect. Thus it represents a huge tax cut for the mega-rich who are already here and plan and wish to stay here even under the changes the previous Labour and Tory administrations brought in, and whatever Rachel Reeves ends up doing. For them, £250,000 will be a windfall. Of course, some others may be attracted, on the same grounds, but HMRC would still lose out. Tax experts put it at £34bn over five years. It would make Kensington (in London, not Liverpool) even more expensive but not that much would trickle down. That means more spending cuts or borrowings to pay for a tax cut predominantly destined for some of the wealthiest people on earth. Any other benefits? Reform says it would mean 'wealth creators' would come and start businesses and revitalise the UK economy. Their policy paper contains impressive looking numbers about how much these types' 'investments in the UK' amount to – some in the tens of billions. However, how much of this is simply expensive real estate, collections of art and classic cars, shares in foreign companies listed in London, and US Treasury bonds is less clear. Super-rich non-doms might splash cash on lawyers, estate agents and tax advisers but their wealth-creating benefits for the nation can be exaggerated. They're not about to finance a new blast furnace for Port Talbot. Aren't we losing wealth and talent? Yes, but not necessarily enough to lose the benefit of a tougher FIG tax regime. Reeves and HMRC seem acutely aware of the trends in multi-millionaires and billionaires moving to Dubai or America, and have already started to ease some of the changes she made in her first budget, such as on trusts used to avoid inheritance tax. Will it work? The quirky old non-dom regime – unique to the UK and Ireland and not to be confused with 'non-resident' tax status – miraculously managed to survive for a century before it was seriously reformed, and now the tax system for the top echelons of society is much more changeable, and undeniably less attractive, to the footloose global rich. Reform says it can make its Britannia Card a contractual arrangement, protected from such political interference, but the fact is all governments love to mess about with the tax system, and no parliament can bind its successors. The costly Britannia Card rules could be abolished by an act of parliament passed in a day, and would probably have to be.
