The Conservatives’ snatching of Labour’s plan to cut the non-dom tax status shows that Keir Starmer now conducts British politics. The drumbeat of power is heard outside the Leader’s Office. This is a government in opposition.
The telling sign was how Jeremy Hunt’s primary objective was causing trouble for Labour. The Tories threw the opposition a problem: how will you find the money that underwrote your retail offer (more MRI scanners and nurses) now that we have spent it on a National Insurance tax cut? I asked Labour’s spokesperson that question. The reply was simple: we stand by the commitments and we will find the money without raising taxes. In other words, the £1.2trn of state expenditure will be rejigged, shook, ironed out and refined until a few billion pounds are found.
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