Will David Cameron grant Northern Ireland control of corporation tax? – Spectator Blogs

Monday morning in dreich late October. What more appropriate moment to ponder the questions of corporation tax and Northern Ireland? The question of whether the Northern Ireland Assembly should control the rate of corporation tax payable in the two-thirds of Ulster for which it is responsible won’t go away, you know.

Nor, despite the fact that the London press has paid little attention to it, is this some local matter of no importance to the rest of the United Kingdom either. On the contrary, David Cameron’s decision on this seemingly-arcane or merely local matter is more important than it seems and, in fact, one of the more significant questions demanding his attention right now.

Theresa Villiers, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, denies she has a brief to “kill” the proposal to devolve control of corporation tax but the impression persists that Whitehall is awake to the potential implications of transferring these powers to Belfast.