Jersey GST reclaim a 'stepping stone' to luring visitors
Derrick Hardman, regional chief operating officer for Global Blue, said a handful of shops had signed up to the scheme but more had expressed an interest.Earlier this month the threshold on how much visitors have to spend to claim back GST decreased from £250 to £100 on purchases from the same retailer on the same day.Mr Youden said customers had spent more as a result of the scheme."[If customers spend £90] it's a way of the sales colleague to introduce just an extra £10 and they get a little bit of money back," he said.Eligible goods include fashion and accessories, cosmetics, watches and jewellery and leather goods.To qualify, shoppers must present their passport and depart Jersey within 31 days of purchase.
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The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Billionaire Labour backer John Caudwell ‘nervous' about Starmer
Labour's most high-profile billionaire backer, who switched allegiance from the Conservatives, has said he is 'increasingly nervous' about the government's direction and is in 'despair of politicians'. John Caudwell, the Phones 4u founder, said Labour's winter fuel payments cut was a 'fiasco' and ministers were not doing nearly enough to attract investment into the UK. Speaking to the Guardian, Caudwell, who has pledged to give away more than 70% of his £1.58bn fortune, said a wealth tax would be 'very destructive' to growth. The businessman – a prominent Brexiter who backed the Conservative party for many years – said he could never support Nigel Farage's Reform UK because he was convinced of the need to tackle the climate crisis and urged Labour to be bolder on net zero. Caudwell was speaking at the launch of a new report from his charity Caudwell Youth, urging more investment in early intervention in the lives of disadvantaged young people – and a renewed focus on mental health. He said despite his own background in mobile phones, he believed social media and AI were a 'disaster' for anxiety and feared a world where AI fakes were the norm. Caudwell said he welcomed some key changes from Labour, including to pension funds, planning changes and green energy, though he said schemes such as Great British Energy could go further and were 'lacking in ambition'. He said Labour had been poor at telling the right story and the winter fuel saga and the welfare rebellion had been unnerving. 'They're just going to be tossed from pillar to post, that's how it feels,' he said. He added: 'I am becoming increasingly nervous about what Labour are doing and especially when they get into this mess over the welfare bill because it feels as though there's anarchy within the party.' Caudwell said he had repeatedly offered advice to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, but had not received much interest in his ideas. 'There seems to be a lack of that commercial intellect that we desperately need in government to make long-term right decisions,' he said. He said he knew many wealthy individuals and business owners moving to Dubai or Monaco, and that the UK needed to become a more attractive place to invest. 'I despair of politicians in general,' Caudwell said. 'You've got to attract inward investment to create high-paid jobs and in technology, sciences and especially in the environment – since that's going to be the absolute future of mankind. 'There's so much we need to do and there's so little we do, and that was the Conservative party before and now it's the Labour party.' Caudwell said he did not regret switching his allegiance from the Conservatives, having previously donated £500,000 to them under Boris Johnson. 'I don't regret it. But do I regret some of the decisions they've made? Absolutely I do. And I think they could have done so much better,' he said. Senior Labour figures have suggested the party should introduce a wealth tax on rich people in the budget. The former Labour leader Neil Kinnock suggested on Sunday it was under serious consideration, saying a gesture 'in the direction of equity fairness would make a big difference'. But Caudwell said a wealth tax combined with other measures Labour had introduced would be a major disincentive for investors – even if he would personally be happy to pay. 'I would be very in favour of a wealth tax if it was global,' he said. 'The rich-poor divide is the evil of society and how do we fix that?' But he said that changes to agricultural property relief, changes to workers' rights, increases to the minimum wage and employers' national insurance was creating a more difficult climate for business. 'I think you can do some of those things, but you just can't do everything,' he said. 'You introduce a wealth tax on top of that and it just isn't going to work. I know people that are leaving as we speak. They're going to Monaco, they're going to Dubai. 'I bet 10 people in the last three or four months have said, 'Why don't you go to Dubai?' Well, I don't want to go to Dubai, I'm British, I love it here. I don't mind paying my taxes. 'I want to influence rich people to do more philanthropically and to pay taxes. A wealth tax would be very destructive on top. I don't say that because I'm trying to protect my money – because I'm giving it away.' Caudwell said Starmer should be bolder in his second year as prime minister. 'I'd be a bit like a Trump, who's smart and who's humanitarian. And I'd force things through. You wouldn't do any of the same things [as Trump], but it is what we need.' The businessman has previously been a guest of Farage on GB News and said the pair agreed on a lot of topics. But he ruled out backing Reform, calling Farage a 'climate sceptic' and said it was 'the most crucial thing we're facing'. 'I would be concerned that he's too much of a Trumpite … and that would not be healthy for Britain at all. But a lot of what he says makes a lot of sense to me,' he said. 'He's able to talk very directly to people's concerns.' Caudwell said he would continue to urge a focus on young people and how investment in prevention would save billions in the long run for the justice system and the NHS. 'I think social media is disastrous for people's mental health,' he said. 'AI is going to be completely disastrous. Even up until probably four or five years ago, if I watched a video, I'd know it was real. 'Now the kids are going to see this stuff, they're not going to have a clue what's real. And I think that's really worrying because our children are going to grow up in this fantasy world where they don't know right from wrong, fact from fiction.'
Sky News
40 minutes ago
- Sky News
Government declines to rule out wealth tax after ex-Labour leader Lord Kinnock calls for one
The government has declined to rule out a "wealth tax" after former Labour leader Neil Kinnock called for one to help the UK's dwindling finances. Lord Kinnock, who was Labour leader from 1983 to 1992, told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that imposing a 2% tax on assets valued above £10 million would bring in up to £11 billion a year. On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's spokesperson would not say if the government will or will not bring in a specific tax for the wealthiest. Asked multiple times if the government will do so, he said: "The government is committed to the wealthiest in society paying their share in tax. "The prime minister has repeatedly said those with the broadest shoulders should carry the largest burden." He added the government has closed loopholes for non-doms, placed taxes on private jets and said the 1% wealthiest people in the UK pay one third of taxes. Chancellor Rachel Reeves earlier this year insisted she would not impose a wealth tax in her autumn budget, something she also said in 2023 ahead of Labour winning the election last year. Asked if her position has changed, Sir Keir's spokesman referred back to her previous comments and said: "The government position is what I have said it is." 16:02 On Sunday, Lord Kinnock told Sky News: "It's not going to pay the bills, but that kind of levy does two things. "One is to secure resources, which is very important in revenues. "But the second thing it does is to say to the country, 'we are the government of equity'. "This is a country which is very substantially fed up with the fact that whatever happens in the world, whatever happens in the UK, the same interests come out on top unscathed all the time while everybody else is paying more for getting services. "Now, I think that a gesture or a substantial gesture in the direction of equity fairness would make a big difference." The son of a coal miner, who became a member of the House of Lords in 2005, the Labour peer said asset values have "gone through the roof" in the past 20 years while economies and incomes have stagnated in real terms. 5:31 In reference to the chancellor refusing to change her fiscal rules, he said the government is giving the appearance it is "bogged down by their own imposed limitations", which he said is "not actually the accurate picture". A wealth tax would help the government get out of that situation and would be backed by the "great majority of the general public", he added. His comments came after a bruising week for the prime minister, who had to heavily water down a welfare bill meant to save £5.5bn after dozens of Labour MPs threatened to vote against it. With those savings lost - and a previous U-turn on cutting winter fuel payments also reducing savings - the chancellor's £9.9bn fiscal headroom has quickly dwindled. In a hint of what could come, government minister Stephen Morgan on Monday told Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast: "I hold dear the Labour values of making sure those that have the broadest shoulders pay, pay more tax. "I think that's absolutely right."
Sky News
40 minutes ago
- Sky News
Wealth tax may not be fully formed proposal - but could be put in the mix
I want to take you into the daily Downing Street briefing for political journalists to try and explain the likelihood of the government introducing a wealth tax. Referred to as 'lobby', the sessions are the main chance for reporters to grill the prime minister's official spokesperson about the big political issues of the day. Now, occasionally the spokesperson comes to these sessions with a clear and obvious update that will 'create news'. Most of the time though, we're left trying to read between the lines of what's being said, searching for hints or steers that could indicate whether Number 10 is trying to shut a story down or let it run. This isn't always straightforward, as was proven in this briefing. "Those with the broadest shoulders carry the greatest burden and the choices we've made reflect that… our progressive tax system means the top 1% of taxpayers contribute nearly a third of income tax with revenue from wealth and asset taxes… going towards funding tens of billions of pounds for public services." Now, one way of interpreting that is Downing Street saying they're already hitting the wealthiest so there's no need to whack them with more taxes. But then again, he could also be saying that raising money from the super-rich is a preferred policy of this government and as such may happen again. So which is it? Well, we asked that, and this is the answer we got. "The chancellor has said that we are not going to be bringing in a wealth tax". Pointing to a previous on the record statement is a classic lobby method of shutting a story down without commenting on it directly. 9:28 So a clear answer? Well in this instance, the spokesperson still seemed somewhat reluctant to throw his full weight behind this previous comment from Rachel Reeves. It all meant the few dozen journalists left the briefing room perplexed at where Downing Street stood on the policy with the only solid outcome being the fact that the government had certainly not ruled anything out. For what it's worth, my read on the situation - based on other conversations and the many lobby briefings I've sat in over the years - is that the wealth tax idea hasn't (at this time) reached the point of becoming a formal proposal but may yet be put in the mix. The reason it's being talked about now is because the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock suggested on Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that cabinet ministers may be sympathetic to it. Lord Kinnock, who was leader from 1983 to 1992, said that imposing a 2% tax on assets valued above £10m would bring in up to £11bn a year. 2:19 Whether this party veteran is reflecting back chatter from within government or simply pitching fresh suggestions is unclear. But you can see how such a measure would slot into the existing crease hardening down the middle of the cabinet between those more inclined to tax and spend (Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy, Ed Miliband) and others more concerned about making savings and investing (Rachel Reeves and Darren Jones). For now, three to four months from a budget that will need to raise a significant amount of money, we can probably think of this as something of a Schrodinger's tax - simultaneously on and off with its final state only revealed when the chancellor opens her red box come the autumn.
