ALEX BRUMMER: Labour’s tax plans would undermine UK growth 

Who couldn’t be in favour of Keir Starmer’s plans for the NHS?

Labour wants to reduce suicides among young people, tackle heart disease and speed cancer care. 

With an NHS budget of £180.2billion, digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI), all this might be possible over the longer haul.

Starmer was clear in his round of breakfast interviews, staged before ranks of parked ambulances in Essex, that income tax and national insurance rises were off the table. 

Labour’s big idea for stepping up the training of UK doctors and other NHS professionals is to abolish non-domiciled status for wealthy individuals who choose to live in Britain.

This, Labour says, would yield £3billion of extra income for the Exchequer.

There are a couple of problems. The first is that Labour has already spent some of the £3billion on pledges to provide free school meals. 

The more significant mistake is to think that there is a permanent pot of gold. All non-dom abolition will do is chase away some of the most entrepreneurial individuals in Britain.

Labour constantly talks about closing tax loopholes. One of the favourites for Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is the fossil fuel tax break for exploration and production in the North Sea, ramping up proceeds of the windfall tax. 

Perhaps no one noticed that at $74-a-barrel for Brent, the super-charged profits are vanishing and that well-heeled North Sea investors such as Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos have other choices which would undermine energy security.

As far as non-doms are concerned, chasing them away could leave us much poorer. Britain may not be able to get its hands on their overseas earnings, but the latest government data shows that the 68,300 non-doms, a diminishing tribe, still paid £7.8billion in tax on UK income. 

Non-doms already are on the move with the numbers dropping year-on-year. As the next election closes in, a stream of departures could become a flood. 

There is no shortage of other choices, with Portugal and Greece offering advantageous tax status, and Italy joining in. That is among the reasons why Milan is a draw for mobile investment bankers.

The Tories already are engaged in an act of self-harm to the upmarket retail, design and hospitality sectors by ending the VAT tax break for overseas visitors, handing advantage to Paris, Madrid and Milan. 

Starmer’s ideas for squeezing the wealthy would nullify any ambition to restore the UK to the top of the Group of Seven growth league.

NatWest legacy

The rescue of Credit Suisse by rival UBS was managed without the Swiss authorities re-capitalising the merged bank. 

If newly minted group chief executive Sergio P. Ermotti has any illusions about the task ahead, he might take a look at NatWest.

Some 15 years after Labour pumped £45.5billion into the bank, took an 84 per cent stake and parachuted Stephen Hester in as emergency boss, the Government still has a hefty stake. 

In the latest ownership change, NatWest’s chief executive Alison Rose is spending £1.26billion on a share buyback which cuts HMG’s stake from 41.4 per cent to 38.6 per cent. 

Any pretence that taxpayers might escape the shadow of disgraced former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin without suffering a loss has vanished.

The contrast between the recovery of the US top banks and the time it has taken to put humpty-dumpty back together again in Europe is stark. 

Deutsche Bank is restored to profit but still wobbled last month. UBS has a long journey back and Italian banks are highly dependent on European Central Bank subventions. 

Meanwhile, the Americans have had enough time to foment a new crisis among tech and regional lenders.

Last tango

Obstacles to Revolut gaining a UK banking licence are manifold, not least the unwillingness of tech investor Softbank to give up its preference shares without compensation. 

Softbank boss Masayoshi Son has a habit of playing hardball, as the UK learnt to its cost over a London listing for Arm Holdings. 

Revolut bosses want the London licence to attract cheap, insured deposits and to passport it into the valuable US banking market.

Chief executive Nik Storonsky believes if it fails with the Bank of England, the French authorities will welcome it with open arms. Paris is anxious to erode the City’s influence as a financial centre.

But not, one imagines, at a risk to financial stability.