David Sumberg MEP
Date: 13/03/2003
Labour's 'KAMIKAZE' Tax Risks Jobs
Thousands of North West jobs are under threat with less than a month to go until Gordon Brown intoduces a kamikaze rise in National Insurance contributions.
The Conservatives are demanding Labour abandons this tax to save jobs and ease the burden on hard working families and businesses.
It is calculated that, coupled with the freeze in personal tax allowances, the NI increases will cause someone earning £10,000-a-year to pay an extra £83, while a £20,000-a-year earner will pay an extra £183 and a £30,000-a-year earner will pay an extra £283.
In total the NI increase will raise £7.4 billion for Mr Brown in the coming year the pain being shared equally between employees who will contribute £3.5 billion and employers who will pay £3.9 billion
But these increases in NI contributions could not have come at a worse time for the North West economy. The already high levels of household debt are increasing and last month the CBI warned that up to 42,000 UK jobs could be lost in the first quarter of this year. The CBI also revealed that a survey it carried out found manufacturing confidence down in every region of the country for the first time in more than a year - with the North West suffering one of the sharpest declines
Moreover the stock market slump has caused the Institute of Fiscal Studies to declare that the Chancellor will have to raise taxes by up to £11 billion, by 2005 at the latest, to cover the “black hole” triggered by tumbling shares.
Quite simply Labour is taxing the country more than it can afford. The stealth tax on fuel ensures our petrol prices remain the highest in Europe, council tax will also rise above inflation again this year with average income earners facing bills of £1000-a-year. Moreover the pensions tax, introduced in 1997, has taken a staggering £25 billion pounds from our pension funds to date. This has led to higher contributions and the closure of many final salary company pensions while someone retiring today will gain a retirement income roughly half that of a pensioner who retired three years ago with the same contributory record.
Yet scandalously all this hard earned cash is being wasted. Instead of improving public services the extra money is being wasted on bureaucracy and red tape. Under Labour Britain is suffering from longer hospital waiting times and road and rail chaos. We also have an education system which sees one in every four children leave primary school unable to read, write or count properly and more teenagers, in inner cities, leaving school without a single GCSE. On top of this street crime rose by a third in 2002 and a crime is now committed every five seconds. It is a record to be ashamed of.
Make no mistake Labour's tax and waste policies are leading Britain towards economic meltdown.