This week’s YouGov poll for the Sunday Times makes it very clear that Labour is failing to get a clear anti-tax avoidance message across to the public. In answer to the question “In general, do you think it is acceptable or unacceptable to LEGALLY avoid paying tax?”, 62% of people (72% of Labour voters) think it is “unacceptable to legally avoid tax” versus 29% (20% of Labour voters) who think it’s acceptable. And yet only 50% of Labour voters and 21% of all voters think Labour is the party “would do the most to cut down on tax AVOIDANCE?”.
Whilst it is true that the Government has attempted to talk the talk of tax avoidance, the reality is very far removed from the talk as their squalid deal with Switzerland, which Richard Murphy described perfectly: Continue reading