The implications of today’s tax releases

I suspect that three important consequences will flow from the release today of the London mayoral candidates tax returns. First, voters will see that Boris Johnson’s rage at Ken Livingstone on Tuesday as being thoroughly justified. Second, they’ll see that Ken Livingstone, despite all his left-wing rhetoric, is the only one of the four main candidates to have tried to make his affairs tax efficient.

The third consequence is that a precedent has now been set that politicians running for office should publish their tax returns. I’ll be shocked if one of the three party leaders doesn’t try and steal a march at the next election by volunteering to publish their information and challenging the others to do the same.

Over at ConHome, Matthew Barrett worries about the consequences of this, that campaigns could become dominated by the relative wealth of the candidates. But I actually think that because the returns also show how much tax the candidates are paying, Boris — for example — paid £210,410 in income tax alone in 2010-11, they could actually help create a more mature debate about wealth in this country.