Harrogate Chamber Hustings : Your Questions Answered
What's your view on Brexit
In preparation for the General Election to be held in less than 2 weeks, we hosted a Hustings of our own with 6 of the 7 candidates standing in the Harrogate & District constituency in attendance. This week we will reflect on the questions asked and the answers given.
Two questions were then asked in tandem.
Isabelle from Titan Private Wealth asked:
What taxes are Labour going to raise to pay everything? (This question was answered by the Labour candidate and commented on by other candidates as below).
John Garbutt from DSC Accountants asked:
What's your view on Brexit and would you be brave enough to raise the topic in parliament?
Conrad Whitcroft (Labour):
I'll be very clear about the taxes that we're keen to raise. We’ll be asking for VAT to be paid on private school fees; I think it's perfectly fair to ask those that have a bit more to pay the extra amount, and we're also going to be abolishing the non-dom status to make sure that we pay for that. Now I've been very clear that we and the Labour Party has been very clear they're not going to raise tax on working people. Goodness knows that's the last thing we need to do. So instead, the focus will be on things like our public services for reform, the planning system for reform as well, and to focus on getting the economy growing to make sure that that actually works. It's important to remember that for every 100,000 houses that you build, GDP will go up by 1%. So, I think getting that reform in and making sure that we change rather than just moving the money around, having some actual new change in.
As for Brexit, Labour said that they're going to look at renegotiation focusing on what the actual deal is now. I think it's been clear that that argument was settled in 2019, particularly when it came through with the Boris mandate that resulted in horrific loss for the Labour Party. There are changes that we can, but that's as far as we'll go.
John Swales (Reform):
I think it's too early to say here with regards Brexit. The early signs are good. We've moved up from seven in the world for exporting to number four. Looking at what is happening in Europe now, do you want to be part of that? So, I think the people have made their minds up; they voted, the decision was made, we are out, and we should stay out. I certainly don't want to have this creeping closer to Europe and then reintegration because we then, as I say, we're going go around in circles again. So, we've made the decision, let's just make the best of it.
Shan Oakes (Green):
I think Brexit's been a disaster. The Green Party's been very clear on that all along. I personally would certainly want to start talking, being closer to Europe and being able to go there more easily and students building up Erasmus and all those things. Yeah, it's been an absolute disaster. Absolutely crazy not to be trading freely with our closest neighbours.
Andrew Jones (Conservative):
On Isabel’s point about taxes, we've seen the political parties say what they say they won't change the headline rates. I think we need to just be careful that they're not changing some of the definitions of what qualifies to be caught up because some of the pledges being made are lavish.
As for Brexit, I did vote to remain, and I can see there have been benefits and indeed disbenefits. Whether or not we reopen that poisonous time in our politics because it was a nasty time, and the campaign was dreadful. I thought both campaigns were ridiculous. I do not think it's appropriate to go back in. We've had a decision; it was decision made by the British people in a referendum. Even if the campaigns were awful, I think people knew exactly what they were voting for, and the result must be respected. I think there are things that can be done and are being done to settle down again and make sure that we maximise the benefits and minimise the disbenefits. The fact that we've been able to export significantly more, and our exports to Europe also at a record high and we're going up to fourth in the world for the market ahead now of Japan, Netherlands, and France. That's a significant achievement.
Paul Haslam (Independent):
I think 81% of the country don't believe that nobody's going to raise taxes. I'll leave it at that.
As for Brexit, I voted to stay. I think we should have stayed. We've lost 4% of GDP per year since then. It's been a terrible commercial decision. Apart from some of the other issues about being able to go on holiday, et cetera or have friends there, I think it's a terrible, terrible decision. However, the people voted, and we must respect that vote but there's no reason why things can't change and I'm sure they will. But I think it's about, again, I come back to this point, MPS work for people. So, it's what comes up on the doorstep, that's the most important thing. One thing I do want to watch out for is trade deals that damage our farming and I think we've got to be very careful on that.
Tom Gordon (Lib Dem):
The first point I'd like to touch on was one which was raised about the tax side of things. The Liberal Democrats’ position is that we don't think education should be taxed. The way in which that would be implemented and how on earth you'd be able to then find schools for people who withdraw by kids. It's a bit of an economic fallacy that's going raise any money, quite frankly. It would cripple the sector and it's locally something that we're proud of. So, we would not be supporting VAT on school fees.
Considering Brexit, one of the things that we've said, and we've been really clear on is that we want to see an approach to try and rejoin the single market. I don't think anyone wants to reopen, and whether or not they would let us back in at the moment when we've got anachronistic institutions like the House of Lords, which wouldn't allow any other country to qualify to re-enter the EU. Whether we'd be able to get the opt-outs that we had before on things like the Euro, that's a much bigger debate and I don't think that's what anyone wants right now and probably the foreseeable future. So, we're saying and taking quite a pragmatic approach to this; we always have been an internationalist party. I don’t know why anyone would want to throw up barriers when the entire argument for Brexit was that it was meant to take them down and get rid of red tape and bureaucracy. It's a little bit of anachronism.
We would like to thank all candidates for participating in a lively and engaging discussion, and all those who asked such pertinent questions.
Thanks also to John Plummer for facilitating the meeting and Pavilions of Harrogate for hosting.
Written by Zach Greaves - Chamber Press Secretary
