Taxing pensioners

All of Rachel Reeves' tax experts have repeatedly called for higher taxes Sir Edward has also called for higher capital gains tax (CGT) rates, and fewer reliefs. Although to be fair, that is one policy Conservative Party Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has pursued himself, slashing the annual CGT exemption from £12,300 to £3,000 over the last two years. After competing to cut taxes over the last few decades, the UK's two main political parties are battling each other to see who can be most punitive. We saw that with Hunt's new non-doms tax. Or the income tax raid on pensioners. Sir Edward even told the pro-Labour Resolution Foundation think tank that it was a “complete disgrace” pensioners weren’t paying National Insurance. Chillingly, he added: “We are going to have to look at the more senior members of society” to pay more tax. It looks like pensioners could be singled out for a targeted tax raid. Labour will hope this plays well with younger voters, who tend to favour the party. Another Reeves appointee, Dame Margaret Hodge MP, has also called to extend National Insurance to pensioner incomes, but that wasn't enough. She was wants everyone to pay NI on their savings income, too. That would be a huge change and punish people who have done the right thing by putting money aside for their future.

Another Labour panel member, Bill Dodwell, issued a report during his time as head of the Office of Tax Simplification calling for CGT rates to be hiked in line with income tax. Other members of Reeves' team seem to be equally tax happy.

READ MORE: Starmer 'will have to raise taxes' None of these proposals are official Labour Party policy yet. We don't know what its tax policy will look like, because Reeves would rather not say. But these tweets and public pronouncements give us a terrifying insight into her thinking. All of these people were appointed by her. Tax cutters need not apply. We won't know for sure which taxes Labour will hike until after the election, if the win. But Labour will need to be aggressive to fund its spending programme at a time when the country is low on cash. If they set out their plans in full, they would scare the voters. Many are only considering switching their vote to Labour because they despise the Tories. They may change their minds when they see what Labour has in store for them.