DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Can Labour resist raiding pensions?

Despite insisting that the nation’s finances are an unprecedented mess, at every opportunity Rachel Reeves has signalled she will approve inflation-busting wage rises for teachers and NHS staff.

To justify this £8billion bung, the Chancellor has used intriguing logic: Paying up would be less expensive than the cost of further strikes in schools and hospitals.

Her point is that, ultimately, the ends will be cheaper for the taxpayer than the means. That’s all well and good, but will she apply this rationale when it comes to the plundering of private pensions?

If Ms Reeves is to splash out on public sector salaries, she will need more money to fund them. Which invariably means extra hefty tax rises in her first budget.

Labour has vowed not to raise income tax, National Insurance, or VAT. But, motivated by its traditional hostility to aspiration and self-reliance, it may be unable to resist a full-blown assault on retirement pots.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves giving her debut speech at the Treasury in London on July 8, 2024

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer heading from No 10 Downing Street to PMQs on July 24, 2024

The Treasury is now reportedly urging the Chancellor to cut higher rate tax reliefs on contributions, hitting six million middle-class workers. This would raise £2.3billion.

But would it be logical? To return to Ms Reeves’s argument on public sector pay: Would the ends be cheaper for the taxpayer than the means? The answer is surely ‘no’.

Slashing tax relief would discourage people from building up nest-eggs for their retirement and punish those who responsibly make provision for their old age.

A perfect storm of an ageing population, a care funding crisis and difficulty persuading people, especially the young, to save is buffeting Britain. A reckless pensions raid would make this situation infinitely worse.

Those who make contingency plans so they can afford to pay for care in their dotage remove a huge burden from the state. They should be encouraged, not penalised.

In 1997, Gordon Brown’s £5.6billion a year tax raid ravaged private pensions so brutally that the final salary scheme – once the envy of the world – was almost killed off.

If, in their scramble for quick funds, Labour’s class warriors finish the job, it will prove ruinously expensive in the long run.

Ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown John Bounphery, UK Country Manager at Amazon, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan at the launch of Felix’s Multibank in London on July 23, 2024

A digital disgrace

With GPs facing enormous demand, surgeries are turning to technology to try to manage ever-increasing caseloads.

More and more, patients wanting to see their doctor face-to-face are asked to contact them via online forms or the NHS app.

But a major study has found this is putting lives at risk. Practice staff are often unable to collect the vital medical details needed to triage patients or make a diagnosis.

As a result, some patients have died due to delays in identifying serious illness. And others – especially the elderly – are deterred from seeking help because they are not comfortable with this new digital world.

Of course, technology can be an enormous help to GPs. But this research proves there is no substitute for the personal touch.

Pictured the NHS app displayed on a mobile phone screen (file image)

A woman having an appointment with a doctor via video call (stock image)

A doctor on video call with a patient whilst sitting in his office (stock image)

At liberty to steal

For a growing proportion of the public, the commandment ‘thou shalt not steal’ is now regarded as advice to be ignored.

Dismaying figures show shoplifting offences rose by a third last year, to their highest level since 2003. Labour has recently instructed police to investigate all retail thefts.

A woman shoplifting an item of food from the supermarket shelves and hiding it in her jacket (stock image)

A police car parked outside a Tesco Express in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire in 2018 to arrest a shoplifter (file image)

This tough stance would be more compelling, however, if it hadn’t also ordered thousands of convicts to be released early to ease prison overcrowding.

Until they feel the full weight of the law, shoplifters will loot with impunity.