‘I’m worried Labour will sneak money out of us – like Gordon Brown did’

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Labour’s election victory will mean higher taxes on vulnerable pensioners, businesses and second homes, retirees fear.

Reacting to Sir Keir Starmer’s landslide win, one pensioner said the result was an “absolute travesty” and that years of Labour rule in Wales were a worrying blueprint for Britain.

Some were anxious that the new government would abandon the triple lock, while another felt Labour had been hiding plans to “sneak” money out of the electorate and give it to “people who didn’t want to work”.

‘Wales is a blueprint for the rest of Britain’

Simon Lean, 58, said: “I live in Wales, so we’ve been controlled by a Labour Senedd for a long time. I think that’s a blueprint of what will happen to the country. Anyone who lives in Wales will testify it’s been an absolute disaster.

“The opportunity for investing in a second home in Wales is over because of a Labour government. To have a second home in Wales you have to achieve the 182 nights occupancy level [of holiday lets], or you get triple council tax charges. For my property, it would have been £8,000 a year. They are doing everything to drive second-home ownership down.

“[They’ll be] looking at changing council taxes, based on satellite images and scanning to see who’s got bigger gardens than others.”

‘It’s a very worrying time for pensioners’

Helen Webster, 68, said these were “very worrying times” because Labour might target pensioners and break its promise to keep the triple lock.

“I’m concerned that because of the state of the economy, [the triple lock] won’t be kept. There’s two ways of looking at it. The Labour party are out to tax everybody as much as they possibly can, but also help the underprivileged. If you have people solely reliant on the state pension as their income, I don’t know whether they would be more concerned about looking after people or getting the tax in.

“It’s a very, very worrying time. Nobody knows. Labour stands as the party of the people, and they are the party to protect the interests of the vulnerable, but they also are very keen on taxation. So would they actually tax the vulnerable?

“I am fearful because although I think they have committed not to increase income tax, so my income might stay the same, everything else is going to cost more. Particularly with Labour, I’m concerned everything’s going to cost more and we’re all going to be worse off.”

Labour has promised not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT and committed to this in its manifesto.

However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank recently warned that whichever party won the general election, it would either need to raise taxes or cut spending in order to meet its own fiscal targets.

‘I fear taxes will have to go up’

Dave Pickett, 64, said: “I think people have forgotten that the Conservative government had to deal with Covid, and that the cost of doing that was astronomical. People forget all that. The electorate wanted change and Labour was the easy option.

“At my age, I’ve seen a Labour government and they’re normally a bit of a disaster. Whoever won, it wouldn’t have made much difference. They’re going to put up taxes.”

Bee farmer and honey producer Chris Burton, 73, felt the country was struggling economically and was unsure about where the necessary money would come from.

He said: “I know that there is a hell of a lot of money to find to restore infrastructure, the NHS, everything. So I wonder where the money is coming from. What we’ve got to accept is that I fear there’s got to be a rise in taxes to pay for this. The big question is going to be how the taxes are raised and who’s it going to affect.

“VAT could go up. Income tax I’m not too worried about, they’ll have to look at capital gains and corporation tax, but they’ve got to promote business.

“It’s a very difficult job and a hard pill to swallow but we’ve got to face it as a nation. I feel like the whole truth is not being spoken on both sides. I don’t know if they’ve told any lies, but I don’t think we’ve been told the whole truth of the economic situation.”

‘Labour is going to sneak money out of us’

During the campaign, experts speculated that Labour could look at a raid on capital gains, along with pensions and inheritance tax.

Nigel Elliot, 67, said: “I’ve had better Fridays, but there you go. I’m concerned about them [Labour] sneaking in capital gains tax increases. I’ve got a rental property in the process of being sold, so the taxation on it is a bit of an issue. It will attract 19pc in corporation tax on the capital gain, then if I wind up the company it’s 20pc capital gains on the money that comes to me.

“If he [Sir Keir Starmer] puts that up to 40pc, that’s pretty much going to stop me winding up the company, and I’ll have to leave the money invested. I already paid tax on this when I earnt my money to buy the place in the first place. If I can’t get this done before they put capital gains tax up, I’ll hold off and wait for common sense to return, and that could be quite a while.

“I retired early because of the pension allowance limit and the punitive tax [on salaries] over £100k. Like many people, you think ‘ok how do I avoid giving over all this tax so they can waste this on people who don’t want to work?’

“I guess what they’re going to try and do is sneak money out of us. If they do a Gordon Brown and find ways of getting more tax out of us, it’s going to hurt. It really doesn’t encourage you to go out and strive to do well. They can’t help themselves, they always do it.”