Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

UK's Labour vows action on 'tax and wage cheat' multinationals

Published 11/23/2019, 02:43 AM
Updated 11/23/2019, 02:43 AM
© Reuters. Labour Party launches its party manifesto in Birmingham

© Reuters. Labour Party launches its party manifesto in Birmingham

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party will hold a rally outside an Amazon depot on Saturday as it highlights its promise to target multinational firms it accuses of dodging taxes and cheating workers should it win next month's election.

In its manifesto launched on Thursday, Labour unveiled a plan to spend almost 83 billion pounds on a program of widespread nationalization and free public services with the revenue coming from taxes on high earners and corporations.

Labour said its "Fair Tax Programme" would ensure the City of London financial district, big businesses and those who dodged tax paid their share.

"Huge multinational companies often act as if the rules we all live by don't apply to them. They use loopholes to claim they don't owe tax and cynically push their workers to the limit," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will say outside the Amazon (O:AMZN) depot in Yorkshire, northern England.

"The next Labour government will challenge head-on the tax and wage cheat culture of so many multinational companies, who use their power and our weak laws to rip off both the taxpayer and their workers," Corbyn will say, according to extracts released by his office.

Amazon said Corbyn's claims were false.

"The government wrote the tax laws and they are designed to encourage investment, and we are investing heavily in creating jobs and infrastructure across the UK - more than 18 billion pounds ($23 billion) since 2010," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.

Labour is lagging Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party by about 10 points or more in the polls but it hopes that targeting "vested interests" will win over voters ahead of the Dec. 12 election.

The party has earmarked tech firms such as Amazon, Alphabet's Google (O:GOOGL), and Facebook (O:FB) for additional taxes, saying it would bring in measures to stop multinationals avoiding tax through profit-shifting schemes. It said this would bring in 6.3 billion pounds in 2023-4.

Other planned measures include establishing an inquiry into the finance sector, introducing a 20% Offshore Company Property Levy, and scrapping non-domiciled status which allows some people resident in Britain to limit the tax they pay.

© Reuters. Labour Party launches its party manifesto in Birmingham

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.