Tag Archives: stealth taxes

19 November 2025 – today’s press releases

  • Inflation stats: Chancellor must put households and high streets first
  • Lib Dems: Govt must go further and “ban surge pricing”
  • PMQs: Kemi Badenoch should apologise for £40bn of Conservative stealth tax hikes
  • Scottish Liberal Democrats call for World Cup fan parks and late night licenses
  • Stone secures meeting with Treasury to save high street banks

Inflation stats: Chancellor must put households and high streets first

Responding to the latest ONS inflation figures released this morning, Daisy Cooper, Deputy Leader and Treasury Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats said:

As the cost-of-living crisis rages on, the Chancellor mustn’t look this small gift horse in the mouth.

Hitting people with a stealth tax at next week’s Budget would prolong the pain of higher taxes for much longer and unfairly pull poorer pensioners and low-income workers into paying tax for the first time.

We Liberal Democrats are calling for emergency measures to slash people’s energy bills, save our high streets with a VAT cut for hospitality and boost growth in every corner of the UK – funded fairly by taxing the banks. The Chancellor must put households and high streets first and put an end to the most vulnerable from having to choose between heating and eating.

Lib Dems: Govt must go further and “ban surge pricing”

Responding to the government’s announcement banning the reselling of tickets for profit, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport, Anna Sabine MP said:

Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to ban surge pricing – a practice that can see ticket prices skyrocketing for in-demand events, and require ticket resale platforms to verify that listed tickets actually exist before they are allowed to be sold.

So while this is a good opening act, let’s make sure the encore truly gives live events back to the fans, not the scalpers.

PMQs: Kemi Badenoch should apologise for £40bn of Conservative stealth tax hikes

The Liberal Democrats have blasted Kemi Badenoch’s hypocrisy on stealth taxes at PMQs, highlighting the £40bn stealth tax bombshell the Conservatives hit the public with during their time in office.

Between the stealth tax being announced in 2021 by the Conservatives, and the 2024-25 financial year at the end of the last Parliament, frozen income tax thresholds hit households with £38.7bn in total, according to figures from the OBR.

The Conservative freeze on income tax thresholds has meant that, by the end of the last Parliament, basic rate taxpayers had paid an additional £950 in total due to the freeze on the Personal Allowance, while higher rate taxpayers were hit with nearly £4,800, according to Liberal Democrat analysis of figures from the OBR.

Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper said:

Kemi Badenoch should apologise for the years of stealth taxes put in place by the Conservatives if she wants to be taken seriously by the public.

The Conservative government she loyally served hammered families with years of unfair tax hikes.

Both Labour and the Conservatives seem intent on punishing the public with endless tax hikes, instead of turbocharging our economy with a closer trade deal with the EU.

Scottish Liberal Democrats call for World Cup fan parks and late night licenses

Scottish Liberal Democrats have called for huge fan parks to be set up across the country so fans can gather to watch Scotland’s World Cup games and for pubs to get special dispensation to show their matches in the event that they are scheduled for late at night.

The party says stadiums and parks could host huge screens to beam back the games from the USA, Mexico and Canada.

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15 October 2025 – today’s press releases

  • Budget rumours: Reeves must rule out “cloak and dagger” efforts to drag people into paying more tax
  • China case: Lib Dems call for release of all legal advice — including evidence needed for spy case to proceed
  • Angus MacDonald MP calls for common sense on rural helipads
  • Murray presses PM over small business national insurance in East Dunbartonshire

Budget rumours: Reeves must rule out “cloak and dagger” efforts to drag people into paying more tax

Responding to Rachel Reeves admitting there may be more tax rises in this autumn’s Budget, Daisy Cooper, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, said:

Millions of people up and down the country are worried they could face more damaging tax hikes, after the Conservative party saddled them with a stealth tax and this Government hit them with an unfair jobs tax.

Prolonging this uncertainty for weeks will leave people deeply worried about what this could mean for their payslips and bills.

Rachel Reeves must rule out a cloak-and-dagger effort to raise revenue by extending the Conservatives’ stealth tax and dragging even more working people into higher tax rates. What we need is a proper growth plan and for the big banks, social media giants and gambling companies to pay their fair share of tax.

China case: Lib Dems call for release of all legal advice — including evidence needed for spy case to proceed

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of his plan to publish the witness statements by the deputy national security adviser on the China case, the Liberal Democrats are now calling on the Government to put the full legal advice they received on the public record.

The party is calling for the Government to publish advice including on what evidence would be needed for the spy case to proceed.

Daisy Cooper, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, said:

The public have had enough of the constant blame game between the Conservatives and Labour on the collapse of the China spy case.

The Government must bolster their publication of witness statements and put all the legal advice they’ve received on this case on the public record – including advice on what evidence would be needed for this trial to go ahead.

Number 10 must also urgently launch an independent inquiry so we can finally get to the bottom of what actually happened in this labyrinthine case.

Angus MacDonald MP calls for common sense on rural helipads

Angus MacDonald, MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, has called on the UK Government to cut through “bewildering” red tape that has stopped search and rescue helicopters from landing on community helipads in rural areas.

While leading a Westminster Hall debate on Access to Community Helipads in Rural Areas, Mr MacDonald raised the case of the Portree and Braes Community Trust helipad, which serves the north end of Skye, including the local hospital. Despite being purpose-built and refurbished to high safety standards, search and rescue helicopters operated by Bristow are not currently able to land there.

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28 May 2024 – the overnight press releases

  • Sunak’s Triple Lock Plus would be wiped out by £1,000 stealth tax on pensioners
  • Briefing: Five ways the Conservative Party has betrayed pensioners

Sunak’s Triple Lock Plus would be wiped out by £1,000 stealth tax on pensioners

Responding to the Conservative Party’s announcement on a “Triple Lock Plus” for pensioners, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

Rishi Sunak’s stealth tax hikes will blow a £1,000 hole in pensioners’ pockets by 2027, over four times more than what he is giving back with this meagre announcement.

The Conservative Party has hammered pensioners with years of unfair tax hikes and broken their word on the

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5 April 2024 – today’s press releases

  • NICs: Prime Minister is still peddling this deception
  • Chamberlains’s Carer’s Leave Bill to come into force
  • 91,000 people call 999 or turn to A&E after struggling to get GP appointment
  • Rennie: Fall in modern languages teachers jeopardises vision for Scotland
  • Blackie: ‘My top priority: fix the Met’

NICs: Prime Minister is still peddling this deception

Responding to the changes to National Insurance (NI) and freezing of income tax thresholds coming into force tomorrow, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Sarah Olney MP said:

The Prime Minister is still peddling this deception and voters will see straight through it.

Hammering the public with unfair stealth taxes and then claiming people will be taking home more in their pay packets is frankly offensive.

This is an out of touch Prime Minister leading a directionless Conservative government with his party more interested in clinging on to power than ensuring people are better off. They do not deserve to be in power for a moment longer.

Chamberlains’s Carer’s Leave Bill to come into force

The “landmark” Carer’s Leave Bill introduced by North East Fife MP and Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader Wendy Chamberlain will come into force on Saturday 6th April.

The Bill will give an estimated 2.4 million carers across the UK a statutory right to take five days of unpaid leave per year. Carer’s UK have described this as a ‘landmark’ piece of legislation which would help carers to better balance work and care.

Wendy Chamberlain introduced the Carer’s Leave Bill in June 2022 after winning a place in the Private Member’s Bill lottery. The Bill enjoyed cross-party support and was passed on 19 May 2023. The legislation comes into effect on 6th April 2024

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