Osborne’s banking levy falls short of IMF benchmark

George Osborne’s planned financial services levy is a lamentable failure according to international benchmarks. The IMF has called for any banking tax in Britain to be set at £6 billion. Last week, Left Foot Forward highlighted the socially regressive nature of the £2.5bn tax which will mean banks contributing 50 per cent less than families (child benefit and tax credit cuts) to the government’s fiscal consolidation programme.

Winning the argument on taxation is the key to reviving the left

One issue yet to be dissected by contenders to the Labour crown is taxation – and more specifically its principles. We may still be licking our wounds from one of our worst electoral defeats in history, but timidity is no recipe for renewing and building a revitalised progressive force to counter the growing threat posed by the ConDem coalition government.