Rishi Sunak’s poised to emerge from his Superman phone box as ‘full spectrum modern Conservative’
WHEN troubles come, as Shakespeare almost wrote, they come in truckloads.
If Rishi Sunak wasn’t already, he must be reeling today after yet another MP quit and a video emerged showing drunken Tory Hooray Henrys at a lockdown party.
Downing Street is struggling to stay afloat amid a hurricane of bad news just as Parliament prepares for its long summer recess — the plotting season — and fed-up voters head for the beach.
By the time we hit political conference season in September, the country will effectively be on an election footing.
Yet, believe it or not, Downing Street is planning a fightback.
Sunak is poised to emerge from his Superman phone box as a “full spectrum modern Conservative”, far from the image painted by his enemies of a left-leaning, soft blue socialist.
“Rishi is a much more Conservative figure than Boris Johnson ever was,” insists a close ally.
The PM will go on the attack over gender wars, the race lobby, illegal immigration, street crime and the so-called “green cr*p” where Boris was slow and Labour is not even in the fight.
These are the public order issues which infuriate ordinary voters in all parties and reveal whose side the Government is on.
Amid predictions of 80,000 illegals crossing the Channel this year, Sunak is already personally involved in drafting tough new laws to stop the small boats.
These will boost the capacity of law courts to slash the mountainous backlog of untested asylum claims and deportation orders.
Holding centre accommodation will be expanded so that migrants cannot simply walk off and disappear into the black economy.
The PM is determined to legislate by September “in the toughest way” to smash resistance from hand-wringing human rights lobbies against deportations to Rwanda.
But ministers are also engaged in the bread and butter issues that win votes, including help for families over the cost of living.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is under pressure to slash tax on wages, death duties, and VAT for visiting tourists.
But with hard-pressed families facing relentless mortgage agony, there are growing calls for an even more radical tax cut.
Scrapping stamp duty on property purchases would, at a stroke, unleash job mobility, boost the economy, help young families to buy a home and allow older voters to downsize without paying a fortune for the privilege.
Nobody can find a good thing to say about stamp duty — except as easy pickings for Treasury skinflints who can rake in billions without lifting a finger.
Thanks to former Chancellors Gordon Brown and George Osborne, it has rocketed from one per cent when Labour took office in 1997 to up to 12 per cent today.
In a single tax year — 2021 to 2022 — revenues shot up by 50 per cent, from £12.3billion to £18.5billion.
Yes, the Treasury needs this sort of cash to trim Britain’s bloated national debt.
But it means workers cannot afford to move house for a better job elsewhere, and older people cannot downsize and open up the housing market for others.
Any purchase above £250,000 is taxed at five per cent of the price from £250,001, doubling to ten per cent between £925,001 and £1.5million. Then the tax leaps to 12 per cent.
‘Most damaging’
First-time buyers are exempt, but are then effectively trapped. Any attempt to move upwards to a new job in a new town comes with a severe price penalty.
Paul Johnson, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, wants the whole system axed.
“Of all the taxes levied at present, stamp duty has a pretty good claim to be the most damaging and pernicious of the lot,” he says.
Tory MP Anthony Browne, a member of the Commons Treasury Committee, says: “Stamp duty is particularly painful for homebuyers because you cannot take out a mortgage to pay it. It is deducted from the hard-earned deposit.
“Unlike paying for an extension, it doesn’t increase the value of your house, and you won’t get it back when you sell.
“We should stamp out stamp duty.”
Bailey deserves the sack
BANK of England boss Andrew Bailey’s sole job is to keep inflation at two per cent or below – or explain in writing why he’s failed.
He has missed his target for two torrid years, leaving householders exposed to a series of savage mortgage hikes, with more to come this week.
Bailey, a historian, not an economist, has blamed everyone but himself.
Now he has been forced to admit Bank experts have made a hash of it. On his watch, the only sign of official disapproval is his absence from the honours list for a traditionally automatic peerage or knighthood.
The old duffer deserves the sack, not a gong.