Labour MPs speak out out against Ed Miliband’s mansion tax proposals
LABOUR MPs yesterday hit out against Ed Miliband’s plan for a “mansion tax” on £2m-plus homes, which he has pledged to introduce to boost spending on the NHS.
Hampstead MP Glenda Jackson joined Labour colleagues David Lammy and Margaret Hodge in warning that pensioners without the income to pay for the tax were likely to be hit the hardest.
“I am not concerned about the Russian oligarchs or those people who can afford vastly expensive properties. But I am concerned about those thousands of thousands of people in London who bought their properties and have seen the value of their properties escalate through really nothing they have done or failed to do,” Jackson told Morning Wire
“There has been an excessive boom in house prices in London an for many people who are elderly or pensioners they are looking at a situation where, yes, they are capital rich but revenue poor and so obviously it is causing them great concern,” she added.
Tottenham MP David Lammy and Margaret Hodge, MP for Barking, have both argued in favour of increasing the number council tax bands. All properties over £320,000 currently pay the same council tax.
“Council tax revaluation you could do in a way that targets [the] super rich, for example, properties over £5m owned by wealthy foreigners,” Hodge said.