Fuller warns wealth tax would hit middle classes

Royal Family Channel

Tory MP Richard Fuller warns a wealth tax would hit pensions, savings and homeowners, not just the super-rich. He argues Labour should cut spending instead, criticising public sector pay deals and the Government’s U-turn on welfare reforms. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Transcript

00:00So the government today are announcing millions of pounds of investment in road and rail schemes.

00:05They say that the previous government hadn't funded these schemes, whereas they are.

00:11Is this good news?

00:12Well, I think they're continuing the programmes that the last government had put in place.

00:16They've added maybe one or two, but the substantial part of today's announcement

00:19are projects that are already underway under the last government,

00:22and of course, yes, that's good news.

00:24Yes. One thing the government is looking at as we head towards the budget later this year

00:31is potentially a wealth tax.

00:35Is it not right that, given that there is a need to raise more money,

00:40that the government should be looking at the wealthiest to raise that money from?

00:44Well, there are a couple of problems with wealth taxes.

00:47They do sound like a good idea to some people because they think other people will pay them,

00:51but wealth tax has been tried in many other countries.

00:53They haven't really proven very effective, and countries have sometimes rolled back on a wealth tax.

00:59And, of course, ultimately, when the government tries to raise more money,

01:01it isn't the very, very rich who will pay it.

01:04It is middle-class people who will pay it.

01:06And wealth taxes will bear down on people's pensions, their savings.

01:09It will bear down if they own their own home.

01:12And more than that, we're going into a summit of uncertainty about which taxes the Chancellor is going to raise.

01:18We know because of the mistakes that Rachel Reeves has made that she is going to have to raise taxes,

01:23but nobody knows.

01:24Is it going to bear down on working people?

01:26Is it going to go another hit on small businesses?

01:28Is she going to go after the farmers again?

01:30People just don't know.

01:31It would be good if she could clear up some of the confusion before we head into the recess.

01:35What do you think she should do instead if not raise money from wealth taxes?

01:39Would it be cut more spending?

01:40Well, the Conservative Party went to the election being very clear that we'd make different choices on public spending.

01:45We wouldn't have given away that money in very large over-inflation pay increases demanded by the union bosses.

01:51We would have looked for bigger improvements in productivity.

01:55And, of course, we'd have made tougher decisions on welfare than the Chancellor originally made,

01:59in which now she's rolling back.

02:01The French President, Emmanuel Macron, is here today.

02:04The government are reportedly looking at a one-in, one-out deal to try and in some way reduce small boat crossings.

02:13Do you think this would work?

02:14First of all, I think it's good that the French President is here and it's good to have a conversation.

02:19We'll see if the Prime Minister gets his plan agreed to.

02:23I think a couple of things I would suggest to the Prime Minister.

02:27First of all, before that, have a conversation about the effectiveness of the money the British taxpayers are sending to France

02:33in terms of stopping boat crossings because they are at a record high this year.

02:38And, second of all, does the Prime Minister really think that a strategy based on the fact that we will send back somebody to France

02:45who may try again to come here while still accepting another person in ultimately is going to solve the overall immigration issue?

02:52I have some real serious doubts that that's a fundamental answer.

02:56To my mind and I think to the Conservative Party's mind, it is offshore processing, so to call Rwanda scheme,

03:01that is the ultimate deterrent, stopping people ever having the chance to stay in this country if they cross the channel illegally.

03:06So you think this one-in-one idea is just a waste of time, it's not going to work?

03:09I think there are big questions about whether it will work.

03:11Yes, I mean, essentially the plan says that the Prime Minister will accept someone into this country

03:18and return by sending someone back across the channel to France.

03:22But there's no guarantee that person going back to France won't come back here again.

03:26Back in 2010, we inherited a system where people were paid to go back to their country of origin.

03:32And I remember, there's an immigration detention centre in my own constituency.

03:35One of the officers there said, we keep seeing people come back.

03:39And so I think that is a fundamental problem, that this one-out-one-out, one-in-one-out,

03:43is that the person who goes out will kind of try to get back in again.

03:47Let me ask you finally about David Jones, a former government minister that says that he's defected to Reform UK.

03:54How big a disappointment is this?

03:55It's a big disappointment.

03:56And David Jones said in his note that he had asked me about it.

04:02I had a lot of questions raised from the time by former cabinet minister, so I apologize to him for missing to it.

04:07But I do say to David, I think he's joining the party, the wrong party.

04:11Because when reform talk about immigration and talk about Europe, they do sound and resonate a lot with what many conservatives are thinking.

04:20But reform is changing.

04:21Reform is now going in favour of nationalisation, in favour of increased benefits.

04:25That is not conservative principles.

04:27And I think Dave will find it very difficult to stomach some of those.

04:29He said that he wrote to the party when he resigned his membership, and he didn't get a response.

04:34Well, he wrote to me.

04:35Yeah, what sort of way is that to treat people?

04:37Well, trust me, I apologize to David for that.

04:41I got a lot of incoming communication from former ministers after the general election, a whole wide range of things.

04:48I thought I had covered all of them.

04:49Clearly this was one that I had missed, and all I can do is apologize to David that I missed his particular communication.

04:54Doesn't this suggest that perhaps there will be more conservatives looking at this thinking,

04:58well, if that's the way they're treating people, then I might go as well?

05:02Well, I've checked.

05:03I don't want to get into all the details, but I've checked my own direct messages.

05:06And I was party chairman.

05:07I'd asked all members to get in touch with me at the time.

05:09I had about 3,500 emails in the first week going through those, trying to read some of those.

05:14And obviously this one for David through that mechanism didn't get through.

05:17Others did.

05:19But I think the Conservative Party is under new leadership.

05:21We have a new chairman.

05:23We have a new approach on the throne.

05:24And we're going to come forward at the conference with new ideas that show to people

05:29that we have learned from our time in office, learned from the mistakes,

05:33and under the new leadership of Kemi Beinock, we're preparing policies and agenda for the next election.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended