It’s a done deal – just about. Down at the bookies, you can get 14/1 on a Tory majority at the next general election, while betting on Labour to win, the odds are a measly 1/6. If you need any more confirmation that Labour will form the next government, just listen to the clamour of the wealth advisers telling their high net-worth clients that it’s time to pack their Louis Vuittons.
It is tradition that as a Labour government heaves into view, a noisy and obnoxious handful of the super-rich threatens to quit the UK, taking all their treasure with them. “Labour is coming for your wealth – here’s where to escape their taxes,” says yet another Telegraph fright-piece on “options for worried middle-class earners”. Middle class? The article goes on to discuss VAT on private school fees (attended by just 7% of children) and non-dom tax (68,800 people claim non-domiciled taxpayer status in the UK). The Tory press uses “middle class” to describe the top few percent, ignoring that the actual median UK income is £34,963 – hardly non-dom territory. But it’s politically convenient to pretend Labour is coming after any homeowner, any tax payer, or anyone with an Isa, disguising the wealth of the super-rich under the cover of general middle-classness.
