Burnham Warned Capital Gains Rise Would Be 'Stupid'
Lord Jim O’Neill warned that raising capital gains tax in the October Budget would be “stupid” — “if you push it up too much you end up losing money… they just don’t sell anything” — as senior Burnham allies reportedly press for an increase. The former Treasury minister accused tax-raising ministers of “being scared and lazy”. Weekend polling meanwhile put Labour ahead of Reform for the first time in months, with Mr Burnham the only leader holding a positive approval rating.
The CGT debate is the Budget’s intellectual fault line in miniature: the theoretical revenue is large, the behavioural response — simply not selling — is well documented, and O’Neill’s “lazy” charge lands because wealth taxes poll well while growing an economy is hard. That he says he declined the role of Mr Burnham’s economic adviser gives the criticism the sting of the courted. Yet the polling explains the government’s room to ignore him: leapfrogging Reform, a leader in positive approval, and Farage reportedly leaking a tenth of his voters rightward to Restore Britain — the political weather has shifted just as the fiscal choices harden. Watch which taxes survive the next eight weeks of kite-flying; the Budget is on 28 October and parliament returns next week.