The panel on Question Time — which included MP Alex Davies-Jones and Tory peer Ken Clarke — discussed how Brits can expect better public services without raising taxes
The Question Time audience chuckled at a guest’s cheeky dig at the public amid a discussion about public services last night.
One man in the crowd in London raised his hand to ask the panel how the public can expect better public services without increasing taxes. He noted large sections of Brits want the former without the latter, which he suggested is not achievable.
Ending his remarks, the man said: “Are we all bad at maths?” The audience in the capital laughed knowingly at the wry question, which led to a lively debate among the panel that included Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones, Conservative peer Ken Clarke and Danny Kruger, an MP who ditched the Tories for Reform recently.
Zarah Sultana, who co-founded Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn this year, challenged Mr Kruger during the debate, arguing taxes need to be increased and the richer people in society must pay more money into the system.
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The man who asked the question in the first place — and made the joke about our maths skills — later responded to the politicians’ remarks. He said: “There are different levers you can do with tax… I think Rachel Reeves is doing it a year too late, in terms of thinking about income tax (the Chancellor of the Exchequer is expected to increase this).
“There are other things you can do in terms of maybe reducing some taxes to increase some spending. I think it was the Lib Dems who said today or yesterday they would cut VAT in pubs and restaurants by 5%. That would all get us out celebrating for Christmas, and that would raise more tax because would be going out spending. So I think there are different levers you can do on tax.”
Another man in the audience argued wealthier people will leave the UK if they face the most severe tax rises. However, Ms Sultana, MP for Coventry South, said: “They won’t leave. This is scaremongering often done around the idea of taxing the super rich. Around 20,000 people in the country have assets over £10million, and they are not judt going to leave their assets and move to another country.
“Their kids are in the private schools here, their culture and their lifestyle is very much in this country and I think it is scaremongering to try to justify nurses and teachers in Coventry South paying more taxes than the billionaires, than Amazon and Facebook, who get to negotiate their taxation deals with the government. I think that is criminally unfair. I don’t think we should be taxing work, we should be taxing wealth more.”
But Mr Kruger, who represents East Wiltshire, argued the Your Party politician’s stance was “wrong” amid the feisty debate on BBC One. He said: “It is really wrong to say high taxation doesn’t drive away the wealthy. It really does. Around 17,000 high net worth individuals left this country last year.” He also insisted increasing numbers of young people are leaving the UK because “they don’t see it as the country for them”.