No responsible politician ever takes a policy decision without considering the political consequences. But Ed Miliband’s decision to establish a £2.5bn fund to save the NHS through new taxes on mansions, tobacco firms and hedge funds was more political than most. It was designed to position Labour on the side of the saints, in the form of Britain’s most cherished public institution, and the Tories on the side of the sinners.
The mansion tax, in particular (which a new Survation poll shows is backed by 72 per cent of the public) serves both political and fiscal purposes. The Tories’ opposition to the policy (as Matthew d’Ancona revealed in his account of the coalition, In It Together, David Cameron vetoed it on the grounds that “our donors would never put up with it”) offers Labour another chance to frame them as the party of the rich. When Miliband first adopted the idea in 2013, the Tories responded by writing to their wealthy donors soliciting funds to campaign against a “homes tax”, a fact that Labour gleefully cited as proof that the Prime Minister “stands up for the wrong people”.
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