A 1p / 2p raise to income tax should lawfully trigger a general election

[TesChique]

There are vague promises in manifestos, and there are those which are explicit and should be binding except in exceptional circumstances (war etc)

If labour, or any party reneges on a core manifesto promise it should lawfully trigger a general election

They have lied to the public.

AIBU to think we need to see this change in law?

This. Yet when Labour did try and address it, they were stopped by their own party and target voters.

We are in a debt spiral and the “not workers” such as those on 45k plus a year are a bit sick of paying for it. This is because NOTHING will improve until the state spending and debt is brought under control. Economists are telling them this, the bonds markets are telling them this, yet they can’t seem to do it. The electorate don’t and won’t understand that tough decisions need to be made. There comes a point where tax actively harms growth and income and we are there. There is no where to go. They need to sort spending out as a priority.

You can't pin the slowdown in growth in 2024 on the Labour government. Global headwinds like high energy prices, inflation and slowing European demand affected all advanced economies – not just the UK. Post Brexit and labour frictions continued to reduce business investment – issues inherited from the previous administration and structural in nature. Monetary policy to control inflation (BoE interest rate hikes) played a major role in cooling growth, which are independent of the party in power. Consumer and business caution reflects accumulated global shocks, exacerbated by the long-term instability of Brexit – not any single government policy. Labour's policies have both amplified and softened these effects in small ways, but nothing impactful.

They are running a debt:gdp about 20% higher than us though. I wonder how much of that extra spending translates into GDP growth.

As ever, it's only simple if you decide to cherry pick numbers.

@Didimum don't waste your breath.

Yes entirely possible to put this on Labour. Many economists warned against the NI policy and here we are.

The GE was run on we won’t increase taxes and they’ve messed up on their own steam.

Taxes hammering SMEs, anti growth and inflation.

I mean I’d say this to you here, no need to chip in.

@EasternStandard take some of your own advice! You have replied to plenty of my posts with your rhetoric, it's boring.

Just stop then. I’ve agreed with some of your posts if you look back but if it’s that difficult for you don’t quote me or engage. Easy.

As I said, take your advice and stop replying to me.

And stop engaging with my posts, I'm critical of all governments and parties.

@dressinggownsif you’re going to do as you replied to pp I will respond, otherwise happy for neither of us to reply although you seem a bit touchy since many I have agreed with. Still fine by me.

How many times do you need to respond to me? 😆

Um… what’s this 😂

Back to the issue

Barclays is forecasting that Reeves will be looking for £41bn in tax rises in the budget, up from their prediction of £26.5bn in September.

If we ousted every government when they lied we’d never have a government for more than a few months and short term governments implement short term strategies and we end up in shit

It took the Tories 14 years of incompetence to make a £23 billion blackhole.

But it's taken Rachel Reeves 15 months to double it.

What did we do to deserve this incompetence 😂

Do the greens have a plan to house all the people who will be homeless after private landlords sell up?

The people living in the private rents can't afford to buy, we certainly can't. There's no spare social housing, our rent is about 50% less than the going rate around here because our landlords are lovely, if our single home owner private landlords have to stop renting to us we are literally on the streets and I'll bet there's many others like us.

To be replaced by what party - the 'highly competent' Reform party! If the Reform councils are anything to go by we are doomed to an OCD over pronouns, diversity training and wanking on endlessly about flags!

You can’t afford to buy because landlords buy up all first time buyer houses. My city is a university city. That first house is the biggest challenge, because property developers inflate the house prices.

Ha yep. Not even a major economic shock like a pandemic as an excuse.

We need a 3-4 bed, not a starter home, and the landlords having to sell still doesn't mean I can afford one, I have no deposit, am lower income. Yes house prices will drop if the market it flooded but unless they're giving them away we and many other lower end earners are still out on the streets

Government couldn't afford to buy them all as social housing

It took the Tories 14 years of incompetence to make a £23 billion blackhole.

interest rates make a difference...

And they correspondingly push up other property prices. Including the one you’re after.

Is the first time home going to be eye wateringly expensive and then family homes cheaper? They all go up together

My point is the price of the house doesn't matter. I have no money to save for a deposit despite my rent already being cheap, if they stop private landlords from landlording what happens to all of us who are already in those houses with no savings for a deposit when our houses are ripped from beneath us?

Where do we go? We can't stay here because the landlord won't be allowed to rent to us, or will have to sell, there is no social housing for us to go to, we have zero money to purchase a house even if it's 50% or even 80% lower cost than they currently are, unless they bring in 0% deposits which I doubt.

We work from home, work that couldn't be done from a b&b or Internet cafe, so if I lose my home I also lose my income, so temp accommodation wouldn't really be an option

Some private landlords are pricks, others are nice people who outgrew the house but didn't/weren't able to sell so rent it to smaller families for little to no cash profit, our landlords don't make anything off us after costs. Do something to stop price gouging yes, but stopping all landlords is mental and will only create mass homelessness unless the government are also going to gift us all deposits to buy

People saying they support this to get improved public services are naive. There won’t be an improvement; this money will go toward debt servicing/reducing the deficit

I agree about the public services, @YetiRosetti, but lack any confidence that extra tax would be spent on reducing debt - not now Labour's traditional demographic have the bit between their teeth and are constantly demanding more

The old adage that ""the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money"^ was coined for a reason