This budget fails to live up to Andy Burnham’s grand rhetoric | Letters
Caitlin Boswell of Tax Justice UK and others on what Aditya Chakrabortty described as a ‘Martin Lewis budget’ Aditya Chakrabortty was spot-on in his analysis of John Healey’s budget ( Burnham promised big change – where was it? Instead we got the Martin Lewis budget, 28 October ). It was a drop in the ocean of what is needed to bring about the scale of change this country needs and, importantly,…
Aditya Chakrabortty's scathing assessment of John Healey's 2020 budget has been echoed by Caitlin Boswell of Tax Justice UK. He claimed the government's proposals were merely "Martin Lewis budget" – a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of change required. The affordability crisis is escalating, and while the small cost-of-living measures announced bring modest relief, they fall short of the wholesale reset promised by Burnham.
Boswell argues that the government must tax the excesses of the rich and corporations, currently off the radar. Reforming capital gains tax, a proposal backed by his own party, could generate £19.7bn annually. This would be enough to construct 90,000 council homes and train 128,000 NHS nurses. The government's survival is questionable without a shift towards genuine improvement, or it risks being remembered for gherkins, similar to Liz Truss's tenure.
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