Flat tax rate is an ‘attractive idea’, Kemi Badenoch says
Share:
Rule would mean a tax rise for basic ratepayers and a huge cut for higher earners if change was fiscally neutral. A flat tax rate is an “attractive idea”, which the Conservatives would aim for if in power, Kemi Badenoch has said. The leader of the opposition made the comments on Monday while standing on a Robin Hood pantomime set at the London Palladium, which owner Andrew Lloyd Webber had lent to farmers and business owners so they could stage an event protesting against changes to inheritance tax.
Referring to the pantomime taking place after the event, Badenoch said: “I was going to joke that [chancellor] Rachel Reeves is like Robin Hood – but she takes both from the rich and the poor.”. A flat rate of income tax would mean a tax rise for basic ratepayers and a huge cut for higher earners if the change was fiscally neutral.
When asked if she would abolish tax bands and put in place a flat tax if in power, Badenoch said it was an attractive idea that a Conservative government would aim for after “rewiring the economy”. She said: “This is an idea that I’ve heard many times. It’s very attractive, but if we’re going to get to that sort of scenario, there’s a lot of work we need to do first-hand. At the moment, we are a welfare state with a little bit of a productivity attached to it. We’ve got to turn that around. We cannot afford flat taxes where we are now. We need to make sure we rewire our economy so that we can lighten the burden of tax and the regulation on individuals and on those businesses that are just starting out, in particular.”.
