How far will Jim Murphy be allowed to go? Yesterday, the Scottish Labour leader proposed funding extra nurses through the Mansion Tax — something his colleagues south of the border aren’t particularly happy with.
On the World at One today, the Hackney MP and potential London Mayoral candidate Diane Abbott attacked Murphy, and at first forgot his name, for ‘jumping the gun’ on the Mansion Tax. She argued London will be unduly hit by this policy and the super-wealthy will avoid it:
‘I’m very surprised John…Murphy’s making these boasts. I support the Mansion Tax in principle, I support the union and redistributive taxation but there are two big problems about the Mansion Tax. It is effectively a tax on London — 80 per cent of it will come from London.
‘The super-wealthy plutocrats, who we all think should pay the Mansion Tax probably using their lawyers will evade it, but you could be a teacher in Hackney, literally who bought a house at the beginning of the 80s for £50,000 and it’s worth a million and climbing.
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