16/11/22

UK: Angela Rayner calls for crackdown on firms hiding money in tax havens.

As published on theoldhamtimes.co.uk, Wednesday 16 November, 2022.

Failsworth and Ashton MP Angela Rayner has told Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab "every pound hidden in tax havens is a pound lost from the pockets of working families".

Speaking in the House of Commons at Prime Minister's Questions this afternoon, Wednesday, the deputy Labour leader made the remark ahead of the autumn budget tomorrow, Thursday.

She accused the government of "dragging its feet to protect their profits" instead of other states cracking down on "multinationals using tax havens".

Ms Rayner told Mr Raab: "The G20 is also an opportunity to work together to tackle the economic challenges we all face.

"Yet as our international allies race to crack down on multinationals using tax havens to stash profits abroad, this government is dragging its feet to protect their profits.

"We have a budget tomorrow (Thursday) where it's briefed that tough choices will be impacting on families across Britain, does he accept that every pound hidden in tax havens is a pound lost from the pockets of working families?"

In response,Mr Raab said: "We want people to come to this country to create the jobs and to generate the tax revenue, whether it's non-dom status, which was stricter under this government given the changes we made than under the last Labour government, whether it's the Prime Minister's approach to big tech companies..."

He added: "We have lowered the tax gap, the difference between the tax owed and the tax raised, to the lowest level, certainly lower than under the last Labour government and we'll continue to do so."

The UK would not qualify if there was a "World Cup for growth", according to Angela Rayner.

Ms Rayner said: "I notice non-dom status hasn't been abolished though and the Conservatives would have us all believe that the economic problems are out of their hands when the truth is it's working people paying the price for their choices; they've chosen to protect corporate profits and not household incomes.

"There are 38 countries in the OECD two-year growth league table, where does the UK rank in that table?"

Dominic Raab replied: "She will know on the latest data unemployment remains at a 50-year low. The shadow chancellor (Rachel Reeves) is saying it's gone up, it's half the level left by the last Labour government.

"When it comes to GDP she'll know the IMF has said that we will have the strongest growth in the G7."

Ms Rayner countered: "I think the economic situation families face speaks for itself. But I'll answer the question for the Deputy Prime Minister: the answer is 38 out of 38 on growth. If there was a World Cup for growth we wouldn't even qualify."

Mr Raab said the economic challenges are "global" and caused by Covid and the war in Ukraine, adding: "We've got a plan to grip inflation, balance the books and drive economic growth. If we listened to (Ms Rayner), debt would go up, unemployment will go up and working Britons would pay the price."