OPINION
Keir Starmer has reached his 'socialist' era (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Over the last few years we’ve had every stage of Sir Keir Starmer: Corbynista Starmer, Blairite Starmer, Kama Sutra Starmer (bending over to hold every policy position). Now we’re entering the final stage of good old-fashioned Socialist Starmer, as he turns the thumb-screws on every hardworking, tax-paying member of the public. It is not just the crippling tax rises – although they’re bad enough – it is the increasingly aggressive way that HMRC is seeking more tax revenues.
I’m getting complaints from a range of businesses about the intransigence of HMRC which some might regard as bullying: forcing businesses into choosing between paying tax claims or pursuing costly and unnecessary legal battles on what turn out to be little more than fishing expeditions. But what both the government and HMRC need to understand is that people and businesses have no more to give.
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It is obvious for all to see that the government is in financial difficulty – not because the country is undertaxed but because it’s overspending. So instead of getting HMRC to keep turning the screw on the public, it is time the government changed tack and turned the attack dogs of HMRC loose on government departments to cut spending and root out waste.
In fact, it should set up a Trump/ Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut waste across government, creating a new unit using the best and brightest from HMRC. And if it showed the same ruthlessness doing that as it did trying to get more money out of businesses, it would do the country a power of good.
Interestingly, Elon Musk said he hadn’t reached his goal of savings in the US due to institutional resistance within the establishment.
He was an outsider from business not government, his team were technicians with little or no government experience, and his new department was an advisory body not an official government department. But by creating a new HMRC-style unit those issues would be overcome.
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Musk also said he was hampered throughout by the unions and state officials, even though cutting government spending had widespread public support. Yet in only 130 days, DOGE claimed savings of $160billion: by eliminating “crazy” diversity contracts and dismantling foreign aid projects, slashing staff, and targeting fraud and redundancy. Even his critics put the savings at between $30-$60bn which isn’t to be sniffed at.
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Musk’s term in the White House may be over but his DOGE legacy is impressive. As he wrote: “The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.” I believe that is true.
The question is, does socialist Starmer have it in him to stop persecuting businesses and taxpayers, and instead turn his fire on the chronic levels of waste in the public sector waste?
I think we all know that the answer is no – so prepare for ever higher taxes in this Parliament. It is going to be a long four years!