Labour needs to be honest about the need for higher taxes

Larry Elliott fails to provide a convincing defence of John McDonnell’s refusal to challenge the budget’s increase in the entry point for higher income tax (Analysis, 12 November). Margaret Thatcher took advantage of North Sea oil revenues and the selling-off of state assets to reduce levels of taxation to well below those of our European partners.

Tony Blair, as Elliott notes, did not challenge the Conservative promise of a low-tax economy, increasing public spending through borrowing, with stealth taxes reducing the gap between spending and income. Now we have a full-throated Conservative government insisting it’s not possible to raise more than 35% of GDP in revenue, and cutting spending on education, welfare, local government, prisons and police.

Any responsible politician has to be honest with the public that decent services have to be paid for, and that the long-term interests of our economy and society require higher taxation. For McDonnell to duck that responsibility is no better than Jeremy Corbyn absenting himself from the debate on Brexit.
William Wallace
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords

• Clive Lewis berates New Labour for not taxing the rich enough and “leaning on those further down the income scale” (A Corbyn government, unlike New Labour, would tax the rich properly, 12 November). Yet, in the spring, his boss John McDonnell mused that voters would be prepared to pay more council tax. Many Labour authorities increased the tax by 6%, the maximum allowed by our Tory government and, at well above inflation, a real increase.

The panoply of taxes – including subsidies, benefits and student-loan repayments – has become so convoluted that only a complete rethink will do. Not all problems need more money: for example, it would be cheaper to prevent childhood obesity than to deal with the long-term consequences. At the other extreme, the ultra-rich will spirit away their assets to lax tax jurisdictions (for details, see Oliver Bullough’s Moneyland).

Before tweaking the system, Labour must sort the basics. Can we tame the internet, which is transforming the way money circulates to the detriment of local communities? Can we stomach sufficient redistribution from richer to poorer areas? If not, how are the poorer going to cope? Can we end our addiction to sky-high property prices? And do we care about the environment enough to make it central to our economic future?
Mark Ellis
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

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