ROSS Greer has said consistent claims by Labour there is “no magic money tree” are a “myth” and the party is making a conscious choice not end to policies such as the two-child benefit cap.
The Scottish Greens MSP was interviewed by economic expect Richard Murphy for The National where he discussed tax, opposition to new oil and gas fields and the just transition.
When asked what he thought when UK parties say “there is no money left”, Greer tore into Labour for using the excuse in refusing to ditch the two-child cap.
He accused them of “lying” to the public by suggesting there is not enough money available to introduce the policy as he suggested they could bring in a more progressive tax system if they wanted to.
Asked whether he agreed with UK parties that “there is no money left”, Greer told The National: “That is a myth. It’s quite an offensive myth.
“One thing that really outrages me about what the Labour Party are saying at the moment - because they are actively using this ‘no magic money tree’ line - they’re making a choice.
“If the UK Labour Party replicated the progressive income tax system we have here in Scotland across the UK […] that would generate more than £11 billion of additional income and for Scotland, what we’ve seen since we started making those changes, is overall tax revenue is up and inward migration to Scotland from the rest of the UK is up.
“So when Labour say for example that they can’t commit to abolish the two child cap because there’s no magic money tree, they are saying they’ve made the choice not to do that. If they replicated our income tax system, they would have enough money to abolish the two-child cap about seven times over.
“The idea there’s no magic money tree is nonsense. They are lying to the public.”
Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, told Politics Live getting rid of the two-child cap is something Labour would like to “make progress on”, but will be subject to whether they can afford it and that means “finding the money in tax revenues to be able to pay for that”.
Greer also highlighted the UK is one of the richest countries on the planet but there is an issue with a very small percentage of the population “hoarding” that wealth, as he insisted there needed to be a stronger crackdown on tax avoidance and offshoring of wealth.
Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Greer spoke about the Greens position on no new oil and gas fields as well as his desire to see loopholes closed which allow firms to pay a fraction of the windfall tax if they commit to more drilling.
He added he wanted to see energy giants making huge profits subject to permanent taxation.
“So no new oil and gas fields, properly tax these companies, so not just a one off windfall tax, but a permanent tax, and use the billions you would make from that to really boost the transition to renewables,” said Greer.
