Latest news with #AndyMcDonald
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour Left backs Rayner's demand to tax savers
Left-wing Labour MPs have backed Angela Rayner's push for a new tax raid on savers. The Telegraph revealed the Deputy Prime Minister sent a secret memo to Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, in which she proposed eight tax increases. They included reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and changing dividend taxes. She also suggested new raids on the million people who pay the additional rate of income tax and a higher corporation tax level for the banks. The emergence of the memo prompted an immediate backlash from Labour's political opponents but some of the party's MPs supported Ms Rayner. Andy McDonald, a Labour MP who served as Jeremy Corbyn's shadow transport secretary, told The Telegraph: 'My sense is that a lot of Labour MPs are concerned that the Chancellor's fiscal rules and spending cut proposals hit those on lower incomes. 'Proposals to increase tax revenue from the wealthy would make tax fairer and support public services. 'Ideas outlined such as increasing tax rates on dividend income so they're in line with income tax, something which should be done with capital gains tax too, would target a small number of wealthy people and bring in vital tax revenue.' Jon Trickett, a Labour MP who was Mr Corbyn's shadow business secretary, told The Telegraph: 'The leadership's fiscal strategy is a stale version of Treasury orthodoxy. 'Attacks on poor communities, pensioners and working people should never be a part of Labour's armoury. 'There needs to be an open debate not a clandestine one in closed rooms at the top but at all levels of the Labour movement which reasserts our Labour values.' Ms Rayner's memo amounts to a direct challenge to the Chancellor's approach this year of using spending cuts rather than tax rises to fill the black hole in the nation's finances.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Redcar steelworks 'could have been saved' if legislation was passed earlier, say MPs
Redcar's steelworks "could have been saved" if new "bittersweet" legislation passed today had been implemented a decade earlier, politicians across the North East have stressed. Crucial legislation to protect British steelmaking that Prime Minister Keir Starmer "hangs in the balance" has been passed by MPs in an unprecedented Saturday sitting in the Commons. MPs from across the country were summoned to Westminster today (April 12) after being unexpectedly recalled from recess to debate emergency legislation to protect the future of British Steel's Scunthorpe plant in North Lincolnshire. MPs debate in the commons. (Image: PA) The debate was called after negotiations with British Steel's Chinese owners, Jingye, appeared to break down. Owner Jingye's plans to close the blast furnaces and switch to a greener form of production would also have an impact on the steel fabrication and supply chain in Teesside at Lackenby and Skinningrove. But, the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill, which was passed today by MPs, gives the Government the power to instruct steel companies in England to keep facilities open, with criminal penalties for executives if they fail to comply. The bill has now passed through the House of Lords, and Royal assent was granted to the now Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act. Ministers said these measures were necessary to keep the Scunthorpe blast furnaces open and protect both the UK's primary steelmaking capacity and the 3,500 jobs involved. However, whilst this is welcome news for the region's MPs, it is "bittersweet". Some have reiterated that if similar steps had come into force ten years ago, Redcar's Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) plant that closed in 2015 and was demolished in 2023 may not have been lost. Redcar MP Anna Turley. (Image: HOUSE OF COMMONS) Before heading down to Westminster today, Redcar MP Anna Turley said: "The action taken by the Labour government today is vital to securing the future of British Steels' blast furnaces. "It is quite a bittersweet day of course because it's hard not to think about how different things would have been if David Cameron implemented these powers ten years ago and intervened to save the Redcar blast furnaces." Referring back to 2015, she told The Northern Echo: "We declared wanted the government to intervene and take control of the assets - the blast furnace and the coke ovens. "The government refused to intervene and let SSI go to the wall. Emergency powers like this world have saved our blast furnace, steel making on Teesside and crucially the 2,300 jobs that were lost." Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald added: "We do remember 2015 very, very well and one of the issues that we are talking about at Scunthorpe is the quality of the coke that is being provided. Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald. "I can't help thinking that in 2015 we had the best coke ovens in the country. But that was then, this is now. We've got to make sure that we preserve our core industries." Recommended: Calls to nationalise British Steel could affect Teesside MPs face choice on British Steel as ministers aim to 'take back control' Darlington MP Lola McEvoy added: "Where the Tories passed the buck year after year, I'm proud we've got a Labour Government that has stepped up to protect thousands of jobs and save steelmaking for our nation. "Steel is a critical industry for the UK and one that really should be thriving. Instead it has been neglected for years, passed from pillar to post. As my neighbour Anna Turley said: if David Cameron had stepped up like Keir Starmer has today, we could have saved Redcar too. "Today I am feeling hopeful with this bold action that we can restore that pride once again."
