‘Reform UK doing sweetheart deals with the super-rich is a betrayal of British working people.’
Nigel Farage’s unfunded policies took another bashing at PMQs today, as a Labour MP described his new non-dom tax policy as a “sweetheart deal with the super-rich”.
At PMQs, Kanishka Narayan, Labour MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, criticised Reform UK’s plan to reinstate non-dom status and allow the super-rich to avoid paying tax in the UK for a one-off fee of £250,000 every ten years.
Labour scrapped non-dom status, which allowed people who live in the UK but have a permanent home abroad to avoid paying UK tax on foreign income, in April.
The Labour MP said: “The Member for Clacton put a singular burning injustice first, the plight of overseas billionaires paying too much tax. Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree with his priority or with me, that Reform UK doing sweetheart deals with the super-rich is a betrayal of British working people.”
The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who was standing in for Keir Starmer again this week, responded to Narayan’s question, stating: “Well Mr Speaker I was asked about the Member for Clacton’s mathematics the other week, and my honourable friend is absolutely right. The mask has slipped again this week.
“The honorable member for Clacton demands billions more in unfunded tax cuts for the very richest, while he marches through the lobby in the House of Commons to vote against sick pay for the lowest earners.”
Rayner added: “We know who pays for Reform’s tax breaks for overseas billionaires, tax hikes on working people and patients being charged to see their doctor. Labour won’t let that happen.”
Farage has attempted to frame the policy as a ‘Robin Hood’ style initiative, which he said would raise enough to give around 2.5 million of the lowest-paid workers – those earning less than £23,000 per year – an “annual cash payment” of £600.
Tax Policy Associates, an independent think tank, has estimated that Farage’s policy would cost £34 billion over five years and would have to be funded by a combination of spending cuts and tax rises.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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