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Telegraph

The week that confirmed Labour's contempt for the British taxpayer

SIR – This week the profligacy and incompetence of our Labour Government has been on full display. It started with Sir Keir Starmer's EU 'reset', surrendering British food, agriculture and fishing grounds to the rule of Brussels – at a potential cost of £16 billion (report, May 20). The chief benefit appears to be the possibility of slightly faster processing of passports at borders. Meanwhile, following the news that inflation jumped from 2.6 per cent in March to 3.5 per cent in April, public-sector workers were awarded pay rises of 4 per cent (report, May 23). But the crowning glory, at least for Sir Keir, was to give away British territory, in the form of the Chagos Islands (Letters, May 23), to a small island state more than 1,000 miles away from it – then pay £30 billion over the next 99 years to lease it back. We also learnt that Sir Keir is considering a U-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments. May this hard-pressed, taxpaying pensioner suggest that ditching net zero, and adopting policies that bring down the price of gas and electricity, might be a better option? Michael Staples Seaford, East Sussex SIR – Labour is leading us to national insolvency. When the International Monetary Fund has to step in – as it did during the 1970s – after we have defaulted on payments to Mauritius and others, what will happen? Perhaps it will advise putting Gibraltar, the Falklands Islands or even the Isle of Wight up for sale. At least we would not be giving them away. Christopher Hunt Swanley, Kent SIR – This Government is killing the incentives to work hard. The vilification of private education and second-home ownership, for instance, will mean that people lose the drive to earn the money that pays for these things – and almost certainly puts them in a higher tax bracket, to the benefit of the nation's finances. Anthony Singlehurst Richmond, Surrey SIR – Why is taxing the well-off such an evil? If we want the NHS, schools, the police, our defence forces and indeed our roads to be well-funded, we need the money for this. As has often been said, taxes are the membership fee to live in a civilised society. Michael Miller Sheffield, South Yorkshire