Yahoo News Plymouth election rival parties clash in fiery tax debate
PlymouthLive, DevonLive and CornwallLive collaborated on a Facebook Live debate on Thursday June 27, which saw five candidates from Devon and Cornwall discuss key topics ahead of the General Election.
Candidates participating included Karen La Borde, who is standing in Truro & Falmouth and representing the Green Party, Gordon Scott, who is standing in Torbay for Reform UK, Caroline Voaden, who is standing in South Devon for the Liberal Democrats, Conservative Johnny Mercer for Plymouth Moor View and Labour's Luke Pollard, for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport.
Two of those politicians were particularly vocal especially when it came to taxes, with Mr Mercer and Mr Pollard having a fiery clash. Agenda Editor William Telford, who hosted the event, posed the question "What is the solution?" in relation to growing the economy and the cost of living crisis.
Read More:
Mr Mercer stated: “We've been through an incredibly difficult time.” He then went on to state that with a Conservative Government, the public will not see a rise in taxes.
He said: “Under Labour, you can guarantee you are going to pay more tax in Plymouth on whatever wage you're on.” Mr Pollard was quick to retaliate: “The problem is, that’s not true, though.”
This sparked a fiery interaction between the two candidates, with Mr Mercer interrupting and asking Mr Pollard to explain which part wasn't true.
Mr Pollard followed by explaining that as a party, Labour have “committed to no increases in National Insurance, income tax, VAT or corporation tax”. The Labour prospective MP added that taxes “are already at a 70 year high".
The focus then quickly shifted to capital gains tax with Mr Mercer asking Mr Pollard: “Are you going to raise capital gains tax, yes or no?” Although Mr Pollard did not answer the question directly, he did acknowledge that the topic is more complex than a simple yes or no answer.
This started a discourse between many of the candidates, with Liberal Democrat candidate for South Devon Caroline Voaden engaging in the conversation, in favour of Labour’s viewpoint.
She said: "The tax thresholds haven't moved so more and more people are paying higher rates, because the tax thresholds haven't moved."
Host Mr Telford then asked the question: "Would people mind paying taxes if there was more efficiency, and they knew what the money was going to and they could see the results?"
Mrs Voaden responded: "It's really interesting that the Conservatives spend their whole time talking about 'Labour will raise taxes', as if the only thing people care about is more tax cuts. It's not true Johnny.
"People are happy to pay taxes if they can see their public services being supported and protected and improved. People will pay more tax if it was going to the right thing."
Mr Mercer responded: "Caroline, that's fantastic, because you have a clear choice at this election. If you want to pay more tax, vote for Lib Dems or Labour Party. If you don't want to pay more tax, vote for Conservatives - and that is what elections are about."
Mr Scott added: "From the mid 90s all we've done is raise taxes. I guess everyone here including Johnny are under the illusion that raising taxes is the only way to get more money to put into our public services. That is not true.
"At the moment we have the highest taxes in 70 years and it is ridiculous to even think to continue this level of taxation, because every year that we continue, the less growth we get to then be able to tax in the future. So if you want to grow the amount of money coming into the public purse, you need to reduce our taxes."
Mrs La Borde explained the Green Party's policy on taxation. She said: "I did explain the [individual] wealth tax, which is a keystone of our manifesto. It is very, very important, because what people are seeing, especially down in Cornwall, is the inequality. So you've raised taxes, but they're not getting any better off because the taxes aren't coming back down."
She added that the individual wealth tax would introduce around £80 billion a year, adding it was "about equity, society being equitable now".
You can watch the debate in full here or at the top of this article to see what each candidate said on key issues. You can watch the question about taxes around 21 minutes and 40 seconds.
