So people earning over £80k are wealthy, unless they are JC??

[usernamealreadytaken]

In an interview with Julie Etchingham, JC apparently said he's not wealthy, despite earning over £130k p/a, because of WHERE HE PUTS HIS MONEY (but he's not going in to that!). AIBU to think this is the most ridiculous statement he has managed to put out in recent weeks?

Given that Labour want the wealthiest in our society (earning over £80k) to pay more taxes, what Good Reason could he possibly have to not include himself in that bracket? Discuss :-)

[RoseGoldProsecco]

I have private health care for pretty much everything - I would still support an NHS tax. However I think it would also benefit from a massive overhaul. There must be so much wasted money that could be better spent.

[Badbadbunny]

or an NHS tax - so people can see that this tax rise goes directly to the NHS, I liked that idea personally.

You mean like Labour's ring-fenced extra 1% NIC to "save the NHS",

and then it ran out of money again, so Labour brought in another ring-fenced extra 1% NIC to "save the NHS".

Don't forget that Labour trebled NHS spending in a decade. Population didn't treble, inflation didn't treble, service standards didn't treble, so where the hell did all that money go?

An "NHS tax" will just get lost in the NHS black hole and within a few years, the NHS will be in crisis again and the NHS tax will need to go up again, and again, and again, and again.

Public finances need reform, they need better accountability, they need less waste, they need greater efficiency. Just throwing even more money at a problem has no guarantee of success.

[brasty]

The NHS improved dramatically. As someone with a disability that needs ongoing care I personally saw how services improved, and now how they are much worse.

[NoLotteryWinYet]

it would be interesting to get a panel of experts (not politicians, but people who've spent their lives trying to improve the NHS) in a room to debate what should happen to improve the NHS. I expect even getting them to agree to a top 5 things that need to be improved about it would be a challenge.

[NoLotteryWinYet]

weren't there very clear improvements in things like waiting times for referrals under new labour?

[RoseGoldProsecco]

That's the problem lottery - "you cannot please all of the people etc".

But there must be some areas where it's haemorrhaging cash and others where it's had harmful cuts, surely!

[RoseGoldProsecco]

Labour created a lot of middle management roles, I think.

[MargotMoon]

If you watch the (edited) clip online it is clear that he gives a lot of his money away. So he is comfortably off but trying to spread his wealth around.

He is advocating higher taxes for higher earners, of which he is one.

Not sure what's so confusing or contradictory about this?! Better than money-grubbing politicians who fiddle their expenses and milk everything they can get their hands on, lowering their own taxes and freezing my low pay and tax credits.

[Badbadbunny]

If you watch the (edited) clip online it is clear that he gives a lot of his money away.

When his personal tax return was published (on which he omitted some income of course), I don't recall seeing huge amounts of charity payments declared?

[PeterhouseMS]

The House of Commons Health Committee report on 'Public Expenditure on Health and Personal Services 2009' includes the following table showing the percentage of NHS funding spent on management costs decreased from 5.1% down to 3.0% under Labour:

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmhealth/269/269i.pdf

[NoLotteryWinYet]

i agree rose and there must be some experts that claim to have answers - but we just get the same old tired political debate about the NHS being killed or saved by funding.

You'd expect Corbyn to have low expenses - because he lives near Westminster. I don't think he deserves saint status for having low expenses. You can only say his expenses are low compared to MPs living close enough to WM not to need a second home.

[Sunbeam18]

How is anyone 'shooting themselves in the foot' for supporting a policy which means they personally pay more tax? Not everyone votes purely on the basis of self interest.

[usernamealreadytaken]

Some really thoughtful responses so far, thank you for engaging.

My thoughts around the initial post were that the Labour Party has recently described anybody earning over £80k as being wealthy, but this is not the stance that their leader takes. He certainly does donate a significant amount to charity (or so his tax return attests, but then he forgot to declare a large chunk of income on that too!), but we do not know which charitity/ies he supports so this could actually be a way of his money being used towards some of the less palatable causes he supports.

I don't doubt that Labour MPs are aware that they will be caught up under the £80k tax increase were it to ever happen, but firstly I think many would employ legal means to minimise their actual burden which many lower paid earners would not do and raises the moral question of making tax payable but then avoiding paying it), and secondly they would be on dodgy ground when criticising the wealthy who earn over £80k whilst simultaneously not being one of 'them'.

Whether JC gives away the majority of his money to charity or elsewhere, if the Labour Party is labelling those earning over £80k as wealthy, then they cannot not accept this label themselves. They don't know how those earners are disposing of their money either; I would hazard a guess that JC is not the only 'wealthy/not wealthy' charity donor. And on the subject of wealth, he owns a house in Islington (unless it's in a trust, you know, for tax mitigating purposes ) - that asset alone would make him wealthy in my book.

[prettygirlincrimsonrose]

I thought he was saying he was well paid (and therefore someone who could and should contribute more) but potentially has less wealth than others on a similar income because of not investing in particular schemes, not avoiding tax etc.

[brasty]

If he is actually donating to a charity, it will not be for some of the less palatable causes, as they will not get charitable status.

[Blimey01]

What a pointless thread to indulge in a bit of JC bashing. Read what he actually said......

[thewavesofthesea]

When I first clicked on this I first thought JC meant Jeremy Cunt.

*misses point of thread

[BirdBandit]

Maybe he donates his salary and/or pension like that other bad man, Alex Salmond....

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/alex-salmond-donate-pension-late-4644082.amp

[poshme]

All those saying 'he has low expenses claims' :
JC claims 14/15 £159,106.86 + £421.77 travel
15/16 £148,301.92

Theresa May claims for same years:
14/15 £109,256.23
15/16 £115,617.83
So about £30/40k less each year.

[LadyGlitterSparklesSeriously]

I thought his exact words were, "I am very adequately paid"?

[PeterhouseMS]

Badbadbunny, you answered my question asking where the well-paid would move to avoid paying a higher rate of tax on earnings above £80,000 with the following example:

You mean all the doctors, teachers etc who are supposed to be emigrating?

So all those junior doctors and teachers are moving abroad because they are earning in excess of £80,000 here and they fear paying the paying the higher rate of tax on these earnings? Really??


There I was assuming junior doctors and teachers were moving abroad because of a starting salary of just over £22,000 per year.

[mousymary]

It's absolutely irrelevant whether he gives all his money to charity or goes to a casino. In fact going to a casino might be better for the economy because it's keeping some people in jobs.

What people spend their money on is - unless I'm in some dystopian novel - up to them. It doesn't make them richer if they spend their money on Mars Bars compared with someone putting it in the Save the Children collection box. How bizarre.

[usernamealreadytaken]

Brassy www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3561337/As-Labour-anti-Semitism-row-deepens-revealed-Jeremy-Corbyn-s-pet-charity-funded-Palestinian-festival-hate-children-dressed-terrorists-acted-murdering-Jews.html

[usernamealreadytaken]

Sorry, autocorrect fail brasty

[brasty]

usernamealreadytaken That is shocking. But the Charity Commission is investigating because charities are not allowed to do things like that.