Ed Miliband pledges to abolish non-dom tax status

Ed Miliband will tomorrow pledge to abolish the non-domicile rule which allows very wealthy people to avoid paying tax on much of their income. The Labour leader will say:

‘There are people who live here in Britain like you and me, work here in Britain like you and me, are permanently settled here in Britain, like you and me, but aren’t required to pay taxes like you and me because they take advantage of what has become an increasingly arcane 200-year-old loophole. There are now 116,000 non-doms, costing hundreds of millions of pounds to our country, it can no longer be justified, and it makes Britain an offshore tax haven for a few.’

The party isn’t sure how much it would raise from this change, but that’s not the point in any case. The Tories have begun to respond, with Michael Gove telling Newsnight that it could lead to talent leaving this country for good.