British PM May faces smaller election win as Conservatives stumble on tax for rich

[rooster59]

British PM May faces smaller election win as Conservatives stumble on tax for rich

By Guy Faulconbridge and William Schomberg

 

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during an election campaign visit to Horsfields Nursery in Silkstone, South Yorkshire, Britain, June 3, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

 

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May is on course to win Thursday's election by a much smaller margin than previously predicted, opinion polls showed on Saturday, as her campaign stumbled again, this time over taxation for the wealthy.

 

In a sign of how far her snap election gamble has soured, May's personal rating turned negative for the first time in a poll conducted by research firm Comres since she won the top job in the turmoil following the June 23 Brexit referendum.

 

Comres found the Conservative Party's lead stood at 12 percentage points, unchanged from a week ago but far below the 21-point lead it recorded just before she called the election on April 18.

 

An Opinium poll for the Observer newspaper suggested May was set for a substantial parliamentary majority on June 8, though her lead over the opposition Labour Party has fallen to six percentage points from 19 points at the start of the campaign.

 

Just five days before polls open, May's campaign sent conflicting messages on taxation for top earners, an issue which the Conservatives are sensitive about because the opposition Labour Party casts them as the party of the rich and privileged.

 

May insisted nothing had changed on her tax policy - she has kept open the possibility of tax rises - after her defence minister, Michael Fallon, was quoted by a national newspaper as saying that income tax would not increase for higher earners.

 

"Our position on tax hasn't changed," May said while on a visit to West Yorkshire in northern England.

 

"What people will know when they go to vote on Thursday is that it is the Conservative Party that always has been and is and always will be a low-tax party," she said.

 

Her comments were echoed by her finance minister, Philip Hammond, though May has stoked speculation about Hammond's future by refusing to say whether she will reappoint him if she wins the election.

 

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a radical socialist who has run an unexpectedly strong campaign, said the Conservative leadership was in disarray.

"There’s complete chaos going on at the top of the government," Corbyn told reporters.

 

When May stunned financial markets and political opponents by calling the snap election, her poll ratings indicated she could be on course to win a landslide majority on a par with the 1983 majority of 144 won by Margaret Thatcher.

 

But since then, May's lead has been eaten away to as little as 3 percentage points, according to opinion polls, meaning she might no longer score the thumping victory she had hoped for ahead of this month's launch of formal Brexit negotiations.

 

If she fails to handsomely beat the 12-seat majority her predecessor David Cameron won in 2015, her electoral gamble will have failed and her authority will be undermined both inside the Conservative Party and at talks with 27 other EU leaders.

 

MAY'S CAMPAIGN

 

The decline in support for the Conservatives coincided with a surprise announcement by May last month that she would make elderly people pay more for their social care, despite concerns that it could undermine support among ageing, wealthy homeowners - a core source of Conservative votes.

 

May later softened the proposal by saying there would be a limit on the amount people would have to pay.

 

The Comres polling firm found May's personal net approval rating had fallen to minus 3, down 12 points from a positive 9 point approval rating in February. Corbyn's net personal rating was minus 15, up 18 points from a minus 33 score in February.

 

The latest confusion over income tax underscores the challenge facing the next government to meet the growing costs of public services at a time when Britain's budget deficit remains large, and with Brexit-related uncertainty likely to weigh on the economy.

 

When May unveiled her election policies last month, she left open the possibility of higher income taxes by promising only that there would be no rises in value-added tax and dropping a Conservative pledge under Cameron - made in the 2015 election campaign - not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or VAT.

 

The constraints of that pledge became clear earlier this year when May's government tried to increase national insurance contributions on self-employed workers. It was then forced into a U-turn after Conservative lawmakers, wary of alienating small businesspeople, protested that it broke the 2015 pledge.

 

Labour said Fallon's comments showed the Conservatives were protecting higher earners at the expense of the less well-off.

 

"The mask has finally slipped," John McDonnell, a lawmaker who would be finance minister if Labour win the election, said in a statement. "The only guarantee the Tories are prepared to give at this election is to big business and high earners."

 

Labour has said it will raise income taxes on people earning more than 80,000 pounds ($103,152) a year, while promising no increases for the other 95 percent of taxpayers.

 

($1 = 0.7756 pounds)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-04

[mfd101]

Yirz, bloody Tories, socialists rilly the lot of them. I'm going to vote Communist uh Corbyn. Lots of English pluck 'n eccentricity there!

[Fulwell53]

5 hours ago, mfd101 said:

Yirz, bloody Tories, socialists rilly the lot of them. I'm going to vote Communist uh Corbyn. Lots of English pluck 'n eccentricity there!

Rilly????

[gummy]

This is a year of surprises.  Maybe she wont even win

[baboon]

25 minutes ago, gummy said:

This is a year of surprises.  Maybe she wont even win

God, that would be wonderful...

[janclaes47]

11 hours ago, rooster59 said:

British Prime Minister Theresa May is on course to win Thursday's election by a much smaller margin than previously predicted

 

May be so small that it translates to a loss.

[lungbing]

You could better estimate the Conservatives majority by wetting a finger and holding it up in the air.  All these polls are just electioneering on the behalf of the Labour party.  They ask a few select people a few loaded questions and then extrapolate it to cover tens of millions of voters by applying fiddle factors.  They then arrive at the answer they wanted in the first place.

[baboon]

7 minutes ago, lungbing said:

You could better estimate the Conservatives majority by wetting a finger and holding it up in the air.  All these polls are just electioneering on the behalf of the Labour party.  They ask a few select people a few loaded questions and then extrapolate it to cover tens of millions of voters by applying fiddle factors.  They then arrive at the answer they wanted in the first place.

Which selected people and what questions have they asked?

[peterb17]

I have a suspicion that there will be resounding success for Theresa- in the context of recent Islamist terrorist events- could many of the population really envisage Diane Abbott as Home Secretary being responsible for the country's security?  

[Stupooey]

11 minutes ago, peterb17 said:

I have a suspicion that there will be resounding success for Theresa- in the context of recent Islamist terrorist events- could many of the population really envisage Diane Abbott as Home Secretary being responsible for the country's security?  

But can you envisage Boris Johnson, given his recent erratic behaviour, being responsible for anything?

[KBsinter]

IMO, I believe this Election was called to enhance her Premiership standing,(voted by the people)

could not believe it when she called it, what do I know!!!!!!!!!!!!.lol

give"s non Brexit folks another chance to undermine, her Goverment.

Edited June 5, 2017 by KBsinter

[Grouse]

https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21722855-leaders-both-main-parties-have-turned-away-decades-old-vision-open-liberal

 

Do try and read this. Easy to register to read up to 3 articles a week at no charge. Recommended ?

[Khun Han]

On Sunday, June 04, 2017 at 9:02 AM, baboon said:

God, that would be wonderful...

 

It would be a complete and utter disaster for the UK if she didn't.

[Khun Han]

23 hours ago, Stupooey said:

But can you envisage Boris Johnson, given his recent erratic behaviour, being responsible for anything?

 

Johnson doesn't have much power in the current government. To state that Corbyn's shadow cabinet is fourth-rate is an insult to fourth-raters the world over. Corbyn is being positioned by the globalists to form a weak and quite useless coalition because May won't do as she's told. If Corbyn gets the reins, he will be got rid of as soon as the globalists have their ducks in a row with the Conservative party (6 -12 months).

[the guest]

Won't make a difference who gets into power, the country is screwed anyway. The British are still in their bubble thinking the country is rich, when in fact it's stone broke. Public services are on their knees, and it's apparent that at some point these will have to be privatized. UK's skills with negotiating with the EU will also be disaster, given they have already been told by the EU that they will not allow UK to have free reign without adopting the cornerstone of EU policy, i.e free movement of people if they want to trade freely, and other conditions. Little Britain is just that, little, and very unimportant, it better get used to this idea, against a block of 27!

[bartender100]

Personally I think she has run a terrible campaign, I asked an 18yo first time voter who he is voting for, no hesitation he said Corbyn and his friends were too

[ilostmypassword]

29 minutes ago, the guest said:

Won't make a difference who gets into power, the country is screwed anyway. The British are still in their bubble thinking the country is rich, when in fact it's stone broke. Public services are on their knees, and it's apparent that at some point these will have to be privatized. UK's skills with negotiating with the EU will also be disaster, given they have already been told by the EU that they will not allow UK to have free reign without adopting the cornerstone of EU policy, i.e free movement of people if they want to trade freely, and other conditions. Little Britain is just that, little, and very unimportant, it better get used to this idea, against a block of 27!

Just restore the big tax cuts that the conservatives gave to the rich. That should go a long way towards solving budget problems. As for the nonsense about the UK being broke, it's either the 5th or 9th richest country in the world depending on how you evaluate GDP.  It's problem is the huge disparity in wealth distribution.

[SheungWan]

On 6/5/2017 at 10:47 PM, bartender100 said:

Personally I think she has run a terrible campaign, I asked an 18yo first time voter who he is voting for, no hesitation he said Corbyn and his friends were too

Clearly a slam dunk for Corbyn based on that survey.

[SheungWan]

On 6/4/2017 at 8:36 PM, gummy said:

This is a year of surprises.  Maybe she wont even win

 

On 6/4/2017 at 9:02 PM, baboon said:

God, that would be wonderful...

Labour reportedly preparing for election loss: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-06/labour-said-to-privately-be-preparing-for-a-u-k-election-defeat

 

[SheungWan]

Corbyn to be PM after election results: 18/1