Extent of Tory funding by billionaires exposed – one in three UK billionaires bankroll Johnson’s Tories as tax breaks for big corporations and the super-rich nudge £100bn.
One in three of the UK’s billionaires have bankrolled Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party as tax breaks for the super-rich and big corporations are set to reach almost £100 billion, new research reveals.
Forty eight of the country’s 151 billionaires have donated more than £50 million to the Tory Party since 2005, with 10 billionaires giving money since Johnson declared he wanted to be Prime Minister.
While these super-rich individuals are gifting tens of millions of pounds, the Conservative government is on course to hand out almost £100 billion in tax breaks and corporate giveaways by 2023/24, a new report published today by the Labour Party shows.
The research comes as Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell will today (Tuesday) pledge that “Labour will rewrite the rules of our economy”, setting out how Labour will reform how large businesses and public utilities are governed and owned, and stop decisions being imposed on workers.
Labour’s report, ‘In the pockets of the few’, shows:
- £86 billion handed out through successive cuts to corporation tax
- £5.5 billion from steep cuts to capital gains tax
- £5.6 billion in inheritance tax giveaways
- £1.2 billion from cuts to income tax for the very wealthiest
In a speech in London on Tuesday, John McDonnell will say:
If someone gave you £1 every 10 seconds, it would take you more than 300 years to become a billionaire.
Someone on the national minimum wage would have to work 69,000 years to get paid £1 billion and a newly qualified nurse would have to wait 50,000 years.
No one needs or deserves to have that much money, it is obscene.
It is also obscene that these billionaires are buying access and tax breaks to Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party.
We know whose side Boris Johnson is on – the billionaires, the bankers and big business.
Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are on the side of the people, offering real change for our country, putting wealth and power in the hands of the many, not the few.”
McDonnell will also talk about Labour’s plans to rewrite the rules of the UK’s economy:
The slogan ‘Taking back control’ was mobilised to great effect in the Brexit debate because people rightly felt that they have little or no control over much of their lives any more.
For many this is no more so than at work.
Decisions are made about the companies or services they work in over which they have no say and no influence.
Labour will rewrite the rules of our economy.
It’s all about treating people fairly and with the respect they deserve
Labour’s reforms to how our large businesses and public utilities are governed and owned and how both workers and consumers are represented will genuinely enable them to take back control.”
The report ‘In the pockets of the few’ shows that based on The Sunday Times Rich List 2019, 48 of the UK’s 151 billionaires have financially supported the Conservatives – and the Conservatives have taken money from 10 billionaires since Boris Johnson confirmed his leadership ambitions.
During hustings for the Tory leadership contest, Boris Johnson said: “My own view is slightly that we became very, very much dependant on a small, financially, on a small group of people, I’m going to throw that thought out there. I don’t want in any way to discourage that small group of people from giving even more”:
During the leadership race, Boris Johnson also said: “I can’t think of any other politician, even Conservative politician, who from the crash of 2008 onwards actually stuck up for the bankers. Can you think of anybody who stuck up for the bankers as much as I did? I defended them day in, day out.”
Labour’s research reveals:
- £86 billion in giveaways to corporations, with successive cuts in the headline rate of corporation tax that is the lowest in the G7, third lowest in the G20 and well below the OECD average
- £5.5 billion as a result of steep cuts to both the basic and main rates of capital gains tax, significantly reducing the tax rate faced by individuals or trust disposing of shares or other capital.
- £5.6 billion in inheritance tax giveaways which allow couples to pay no tax on a primary residence worth up to £1 million.
- £1.2 billion from reducing the additional income tax rate to 45p in 2013/14
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I presume that we have a policy for billionaires as well!
particularly Russian ones. It is alleged…and i feel sure of it, that the scintillating company of one Tory is much coveted, So desirable … IRRESISTABLE…the sparkling conviviality, compulsive chit chat and magnetic warmth of the well known Tory social butterfly, that a few months ago the wife of a Russian MULTI MILLIONAIRE or BILLIONAIRE ( too many for detailed valuation in London, Surrey, Hampshire & Berkshire…)… ANYWAY, an oligarch special friend of Vladimir the neo-Tarzan, paid hundreds of thousands of £££ to BUY, be enchanted by uplifting delights of the Tory luminary. Which one? Obviously the wheat field wrecking, farmer frustrater… Theresa May.
Here is the full list of Labour Party candidates for the general election.
If there’s a particular candidate that you think needs your help and is someone you feel you wish to support, then you can donate money or volunteer for their specific campaign.
I shall be making my selections in the next couple of days.
http://vote.labour.org.uk/all-candidates