Weekly Roundup - 22/12

Your Comprehensive Guide to This Week's UK Politics Events, featuring dismal economic forecasts, tax increases, and recall petitions. Subscribe to receive this in your email inbox every week!

New Scottish Tax Thresholds

The Scottish Government announced new income tax thresholds for higher earners in its latest budget. A 45% rate is being introduced for those earning between ￡75k and ￡125k. The current highest rate of 47% is being increased to 48% for people earning more than ￡125k. Finally, the current threshold of ￡43,663 for those paying a 42% rate is being frozen, and will not increase in line with inflation.

The SNP claim these tax rises will bring in an extra ￡1.5 billion for public spending next year, but have also admitted that government departments will still have to take tough decisions to meet their fiscal commitments. Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross correctly criticised this budget, arguing that Scots are ‘paying more and getting less’.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also said that ‘These are not the people with the broadest shoulders, but they are being forced to pay the price for his failures in the middle of a cost of living crisis’. These tax rises punish businesses, which will invariably lead to service cuts and job losses, impacting working people most acutely.

Scottish earners in all bands are paying more tax than the other parts of the UK. It also means that Scotland has the 2nd highest tax rate of anywhere in the world. If the SNP wants people to support independence, their current strategy of wasting taxpayers money and deterring investment in Scotland is wholly unwise.

Wellingborough’s upcoming by-election

Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, is due to have a by-election early next year, after a recall petition to remove Peter Bone MP was successful. Bone was suspended from Parliament in October, following allegations that he bullied and exposed himself to a former member of staff.

The recall petition was signed by 13.2% of voters in Wellingborough, above the 10% threshold required to oust Mr Bone. These petitions allow voters to remove their MP between elections, which is triggered if an MP is suspended from Parliament or commits a crime.

In a statement on X, Mr Bone argued that 86.8% of voters did not sign the recall petition, and called the entire process bizarre and unfair. He is still able to contest his seat in the by-election, but has not said whether he will do this. This presents another test for Rishi Sunak, who will hope to prevent another by-election loss to Labour. More significantly, Mr Bone is the latest in a growing list of Tory MPs involved in a scandal of this kind. The Conservative party, and parliamentarians as a whole, risk developing a reputation for nasty and dodgy behaviour.

UK economy shrinks

Revised ONS figures have revealed that the economy contracted by 0.1% in Q3 of 2023 (July to September). It was previously believed that GDP rose by 0.2% in Q2 (April to June), but we now know that there was zero growth. The UK is potentially heading for a recession. Economists are predicting that the UK’s pattern of low growth will continue throughout 2024, which will likely lead to a rise in unemployment.

Sunak made growing the economy one of his 5 key pledges, and it is clear that he has completely failed to achieve this. Growth in the UK since before Covid is only 1.4%, compared to 7.4% in the US and 3.4% in Italy. The Conservatives have forced the public to endure the highest ever peacetime tax burden, barely functioning public services and pitifully low economic growth. Sunak’s election chances look bleak, as he surrenders another traditionally Conservative strongpoint to Starmer’s Labour. In the 2024 general election campaign, he will struggle to cite any meaningful achievements, and faces a monumental battle to keep the Tories in power.

Keir Starmer declares support for legalising euthanasia

In his visit to Estonia this week, Labour Leader Keir Starmer said that assisted suicide laws ought to change. Euthanasia is banned in the UK, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. Starmer argued that if Parliament considered the issue again, it should be a free vote, respecting the ‘strong views’ on either side. Free votes don’t involve any whips enforcing the party line, allowing MPs to vote by personal choice.

Starmer has previously argued that there should be strong safeguards to protect against people being pressured into killing themselves. Striking this balance will be incredibly difficult. As a backbencher, Starmer supported a bill in 2015 that would have allowed terminally ill people to end their own life, but MPs rejected the proposals. It is unlikely that a Labour government would introduce a law of its own legalising euthanasia, but it is clear that it would support a Private Members bill on this issue.

The ethical debate around assisted suicide is highly complex, and drawing the line between genuine consent and someone being pressured into ending their life is potentially impossible. Safeguards against abuse of vulnerable people will have to be rigorous and extremely well considered, to ensure that assisted suicide is only possible in rare circumstances.