Newspaper Column – The Cornishman – 24/11/25

 

• Imagine if the richest said “Please tax us more to help the poor. Tax wealth, not work”. 

Well, that DOES happen. I saw and heard it, with my own eyes and ears.  

I welcomed the “Tax Us, the Super-Rich” Campaign Bus when it pulled into Westminster last week. The final stop on its national tour. Thanks to Patriotic Millionaires for organising this and for delivering a powerful message, but which has been largely ignored by the media. Why? 

This is written before the Budget. I’ve raised matters with the Chancellor. It’s time to combat widening inequality. She must not be bullied by the loudest voices.  

I’d already tabled a raft of parliamentary motions, urging the Chancellor to combat widening inequality, choose tax justice, reward work and enterprise, close tax loop-holes, lift those struggling to make ends meet. 

One of the wealthy campaigners, Millionaire YouTuber and economist Gary Stevenson, said: “People like me, the super-rich, must start paying what they should. Working people are being squeezed out because our country’s wealth is being concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer people. The Chancellor has an opportunity to change that, to tax wealth, not work. Millionaires support it, the public supports it. It’s time to get on with it.”  

I agree. By the time you read this, you’ll know whether the Chancellor listened to commonsense, or caved in to protect vested interests. 

 

• The planning system is fuelled by greed, not need. I again challenged government ministers this week to shift their policy to deliver homes to meet local need, not to reward land value speculators, as the planning system does at present. 

I also held a productive meeting with Secretary of State, Steve Reed MP, last week alongside Cornish MP colleague Noah Law and Community Land Trust representatives to encourage the government to rekindle the hundreds of shovel-ready, genuinely affordable community-led homes for locals in Cornwall and on Scilly which are currently stuck. Work to follow through. Otherwise they’ll miss their targets. 

 

• Cornish MPs strongly welcomed the government’s announcement in support of a developing an investment strategy for critical minerals, as part of the Industrial Strategy. Cornwall will be centre place as most of those reserves are based here. This alongside our rapidly growing Space sector, green energy, developing geothermal industries and marine opportunities. We’re all optimistic that Cornwall has the ingredients for successful economic growth and improved employment prospects for local people in the decades ahead.  

 

• In further good news. Work is now underway to restore one of few remaining medieval quays at Newlyn. Using local contractors, Symons, traditional techniques and local materials this is funded by the government’s heritage agency. And we have a finalist in a Woman of the Year competition. Deborah O’Nyons from NHS Cornwall is nominated in the Diversity and Equality category, for transformative work for women in the NHS, to reduce women’s health inequalities.