Starmer and Sunak don’t believe in taxing the ultra-wealthy. Is there really much difference between them?

Scottish voters would obviously be forgiven for thinking that Sir Keir Starmer – the leader of the Labour Party – would not put forward a policy programme that benefits Tory millionaires like Rishi Sunak.

However, that’s the path Sir Keir is taking Labour on as he seeks to be Westminster’s next Prime Minister.

When he was standing for Labour leader in February 2020, and in order to win votes from those who had supported Jeremy Corbyn, he solemnly pledged that a government of his would ‘increase income tax for the top 5% of earners‘.

In 2022 he was adamantly vowing to reinstate the top tax band for earners over £150,000 and mocking ‘super-rich Rishi Sunak‘.

But, only seven months later in 2023, his tone changed and he made another of his notorious U-turns and thus broke another promise to the Labour members who elected him.

• Keir Starmer: I don’t want to raise income tax for top earners – Telegraph, 23 June 2023

And just after New Year that U-turn started to accelerate into a J-turn.

• Labour considers non-dom tax plan that would raise £1bn less than initial pledge – The Guardian, 12 January 2024
• Keir Starmer ‘won’t tax super rich more to redistribute to poor’ if PM – The National, 15 January 2024

Then, only three days later, the MP Keir Starmer has promoted to be the next Chancellor of Exchequer said that her “instinct is to have lower taxes”:

• Rachel Reeves hints at Labour tax cuts for top earners – Telegraph, 17 January 2024

So we are now in a position where the next Chancellor of the Exchequer representing Keir Starmer’s Labour party could cut taxes for the previous Tory Prime Minister. And this comes after they announced that they would keep to the Tories’ spending plans:

• Labour will copy Tory tax and spending plans if elected – Sunday Times, 9 July 2023
• No more money for public services as Labour set to follow Tory spending plans – The National, 9 July 2023

With more and more people facing a cost of living crisis, and public services struggling because of Tory cuts, it’s all the more perverse that Labour would suggest such a policy at a time when wealthy people are calling for tax increases on their wealth:

• Succession actor Brian Cox joins calls for wealth tax on super-rich – The National, 17 January 2024
• Nearly three quarters of G20 millionaires support higher taxes on wealth – extreme wealth is a “threat to democracy” – Patriotic Millionaires, 16 January 2024

In its recent budget the Scottish Government took the decision to use what limited tax powers it has to raise income tax on higher earners in order to fund our public services and spend half a billion more on the NHS.

What was Scottish Labour’s response? They attacked it. And now even their leader in Holyrood is proposing a policy that would cut Rishi Sunak’s tax:

• Sarwar will consider tax cuts for middle income Scots if he becomes FM – Daily Record, 8 January 2024

But there is a way to escape this depressing revolving door of Westminster governments who are focussed on pleasing the super-rich whilst following Tory spending plans.

With independence Scotland will have the power over all tax and spending that Westminster currently controls. That power would ultimately be in your hands. You, the people of Scotland, will make the decisions that affect you.

And the only way to achieve that – and to get rid of Westminster policies for good – is to vote SNP.