Ditching a damaging capital gains tax rise doesn’t make Healey a pro-growth Chancellor

Although the government has ruled out raising Capital Gains Tax in the upcoming budget, Labour s broader tax and spending policies remain economically damaging, uncompetitive, and fundamentally misguided, says Daniel Herring The government needs to find money for the upcoming Budget. Having ruled out the least damaging and broadest-based tax rises, Labour needs to resort to little taxes here and there to find money. Raising capital gains tax (CGT), even aligning it with income tax, was seen as a way that raised revenue while avoiding hurting working people. There’s support for this Cabinet:  Wes Streeting called CGT a “wealth tax that works”. Louise Haigh is another prominent advocate. It is superficially appealing: why should different forms of income be treated differently? However, CGT is a damaging tax and raising it is likely to be counterproductive. Thankfully the government has ruled out raising capital gains tax in the upcoming budget. CGT is paid by a small number of