Mega wealthy businessman John Caudwell has used an interview to urge Chancellor Rachel Reeves to deliver a “radical” Budget that could include higher VAT and increased tobacco and alcohol duties
Billionaire Labour backer John Caudwell has urged the Chancellor to hit online gambling firms with higher taxes, claiming they cause “mayhem in society”.
The Phones4U founder also called for higher taxes on booze and cigarettes, It came as the 72-year-old encouraged Rachel Reeves and Labour PM Sir Keir Starmer to take a “radical” approach to the public finances, predicting November’s Budget would be “make or break” for the Government.
He said this should include Labour dropping its pre-election manifesto pledge not to increase taxes on “working people”, as he suggested Ms Reeves increase VAT by 1p in the pound.
Mr Caudwell, a former Tory donor who backed Labour at the last general election, threw his weight behind calls for higher taxes on online gambling firms. It comes after former Labour PM Gordon Brown said targeting the “massively undertaxed profits” of the gambling industry could lift half a million children out of poverty.
Interviewed by the FT, Mr Caudwell said: “Online gambling is causing mayhem in society because people just get through on the mobile phone and they’re there all day gambling the family’s money away. My whole philosophy is to do what’s best for society and tax those people that are not the best for society. An online gambling tax could raise up to £5billion.”
Philanthropist Mr Caudwell, a keen cyclist, said along with higher duties on alcohol and cigarettes there should be a new “carbohydrate tax” designed to “drive people towards kale, spinach, cabbage…healthy vegetables”.
He said Labour had made mistakes in last year’s Budget, singling out the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions.
Asked for his verdict on the government so far, he said: “If it’s a Budget along the lines of what they’ve done before I’ll give them 3/10. If they say ‘we got it wrong” and then…drive forward with the right policies, I’d give them 7/10.”
Despite sounding disillusioned with Mr Starmer’s government after one year in power, he insisted he was not planning to switch support to any of its rivals.
He said Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party’s rhetoric on immigration was sometimes too “brutal”, and added that Reform was also at odds with his enthusiasm for the green economy, saying: “I am very concerned about his position on climate change”.
Mobile phone giant Phones 4u was founded by entrepreneur Mr Caudwell in the late 1980s. He made a fortune after selling it for £1.5billion in 2006 and his since become a property magnate.
Mr Caudwell has previously warned Labour against imposing a wealth tax to help plug a black hole in the public finances. He has said: “I want to influence rich people to do more philanthropically and to pay taxes. A wealth tax would be very destructive on top. don’t say that because I’m trying to protect my money -because I’m giving it away.”
Interviewed by the Mirror last year, Mr Caudwell insisted he does not want to be best known as a billionaire when he dies. “I hate the title,” he said.
“To die a billionaire is not very important to me. The act of being a billionaire is not about how much wealth you create, it’s what you do with it.” In 2013, the tycoon was one of the first British billionaires to agree to the Giving Pledge.