Sir Keir Starmer has endorsed a new high-tax United Nations manifesto, paving the way for higher taxes on the wealthy, alcohol and fossil fuels. The Telegraph has the story.
Ministers have endorsed the global agreement, which calls for greater environmental levies and “gender-responsive taxation”.
The UK’s participation represents another break with Donald Trump, who pulled the US out of the deal over concerns about its provisions on tax.
It comes after Rachel Reeves warned that taxes may have to be increased again in the autumn to plug the hole left by Labour’s welfare rebellion.
The Tories warned that Sir Keir Starmer was deliberately making it harder for a future government to reverse Labour’s tax rises.
Known as the Sevilla Commitment, the UN agreement was thrashed out between 192 countries at a five-day summit in Seville, Spain, last week.
While ostensibly focused on drumming up more development cash for poorer states, the final text of the deal contains 42 references to taxation.
There are specific mentions of taxes on “high net-worth individuals”, as well as tobacco and alcohol, natural resources and pollution.
Britain also signed up to a series of declarations on the side, including one that promotes higher taxes on unhealthy products such as sugary drinks.
Gareth Davies, the Shadow Treasury Minister, accused Labour of “outsourcing tax policy to organisations that don’t reflect the priorities of the British people”.
“People want to see their taxes reduced and simplified, not increased and complicated to fund vacuous virtue signalling by global elites,” he said.
“This will only make it harder for a future government to reverse Labour’s tax rises.”
The commitments in the deal are not legally binding, meaning that they could not be used to force through the adoption of domestic tax policies.
But critics warned that signing up to the pact showed the Government was locking Britain into a permanent course of ever higher taxation.
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