Frances Ryan is right to highlight the increasing consensus between Labour and the Tories on cutting taxation, including its negative consequences for much-needed investment in public services and the reduction of destitution, poverty and inequality (I believe taxation is a great public good, but I look at my tax return and ask: what are we paying for?, 11 January).
Adopting this government’s approach to fiscal responsibility, as Labour seem set on, will only widen inequalities and its damaging consequences for children’s health, education and wellbeing, as comprehensively evidenced by Sir Michael Marmot’s 2020 review. And what is so blinkered is Labour’s failure to engage the public with the short- and longer-term personal and economic costs of maintaining the status quo on taxation. Even a modest approach to progressive taxation would provide the funding to shift Labour’s policy agenda from piecemeal tinkering to reform, from rationing to needs-led public services – offering a progressive vision to win the hearts and minds of the electorate.
Prof Mike Stein
University of York
• I share Frances Ryan’s indignation at the government and the opposition’s refusal to raise more taxes from the wealthy and affluent in order to rebuild our public services and reduce poverty. I can’t for the life of me see why such callousness should be a vote-winner.
However, it also baffles me that no one seems to question the recent hikes in UK military spending, which, between 2020 and 2025, will be the largest sustained increase for 30 years: spending which fuels the devastation of lives and of our already fragile and polluted planet.
What our country needs is a government of national unity, to create a radical rescue plan for the UK and beyond: one in which those who have the most will contribute the most, for the benefit of us all.
Diana Francis
Bath
• So, ending non-dom tax status will fund 700,000 dental appointments and help correct the tragic state of dentistry in the UK (Britain has suffered terribly under these Tories, especially our children. The only word for it is neglect, 10 January). It will also enable free breakfast clubs in primary schools and address the worsening ill health of children. Do the figures stack up? Well, I hope so.
But what of our decrepit public services, our diminished NHS, lack of care for elderly people, etc? Frances Ryan in her piece correctly challenges the failure of Keir Starmer and his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to raise the tax levels of the wealthy as part of a renewal programme – and, I might add, to explain clearly to the public why this is essential. As she says, growth alone won’t solve “broken Britain”.
Ending non-dom status of the rich simply won’t solve the multiple issues a Labour government will need to address. Raising taxes from the top 5% certainly could. Time for some honesty and transparency.
Jol Miskin
Sheffield
• Regarding Frances Ryan’s piece on taxation, according to the Office for National Statistics, the combined gross annual income of the top 1% of earners in the UK was £605.5bn in 2020. Given the mess that Labour is likely to inherit, why not ask this top 1% to donate one year of their annual income to the Treasury – given their wealth, this is hardly likely to affect their standard of living, and the contribution to the public good would be their reward.
Prof emeritus TD Wilson
University of Sheffield
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