THE SNP has said reports that Rachel Reeves will drop Labour’s commitment to end non-dom status will go down like “a bucket of cold sick” with voters.
Previously Labour’s manifesto committed to “cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments each week, during evenings and weekends, paid for by cracking down on tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes.”
It comes after the Labour Party faced fierce criticism for accepting a £4 million donation from a company linked to a Cayman Islands tax haven.
Sir Keir Starmer’s first three months in office has been dominated by cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment for millions of pensioners while he personally has been mired in a donations scandal.
The revelations regarding the gifts given by Lord Alli led to the SNP calling for an independent investigation with donations to the Prime Minister and senior Cabinet Ministers including expensive designer clothing and glasses, free foreign holidays, the use of luxury penthouse apartments and payment for a politician’s birthday party event.
Commenting on reports that Rachel Reeves will protect the super-rich tax perk, the SNP’s Kirsty Blackman MP said:
“The Labour Party accepted a record breaking £4 million donation linked to a tax haven and now they appear to have ended their plans to scrap non-dom status – what on earth does this say about Labour’s priorities in government?
“Starmer’s first concern in office appears to have been to pick the pockets of pensioners and ditch his commitment to close tax loopholes for the super-rich – all the while Labour’s top brass are dripping in murky donations with designer clothing funds and flash gifts apparently the norm.
“We have called for an investigation into these donations and the passes for glasses scandal, but when it comes to non-dom status there can be no doubt – tax avoidance of this kind must be ended by the Labour Government and they must not renege on their promise to the public that they would do exactly that.
“Fancy suit funds and plush penthouse stays may wash with the non-doms the Labour Party now seem eager to protect, but it will go down like a bucket of cold sick with Scots when 880,000 of our pensioners are being robbed of their winter fuel payment – the Labour Party promised “change”, but it’s the same old Westminster story on a loop.”
