Don’t let Remainers like Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn ruin Labour – Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.
Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper backed Remain.Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper backed Remain.
Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper backed Remain.

FIRST Sir Keir Starmer and then Andy Burnham suggest that Brexit is done and should be accepted. Now we have Austin Mitchell putting the Brexit case into perspective by telling his Labour politician friends that they should now accept the fact and stop sulking (The Yorkshire Post, June 3).

I would go further and demand the likes of Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper, Emily Thornberry and the rest of the Labour Party arch-Remainers either accept the fact and stop sulking, or leave the party. If they don’t accept the democratic fact of Brexit, these people will ruin the Labour Party as we know it, and as is now being seen not just at general elections but also at every by-election.

From: Peter Neal, Oxford Court, Cleethorpes.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
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THE forthcoming Batley and Spen by-election should present the Labour party with a straightforward victory (The Yorkshire Post, June 1).

But given the Hartlepool debacle, the unpredictability and the quality of the candidates makes forecasting the result fraught with danger.

Labour has learnt a harsh lesson from Hartlepool so this time it has selected a likeable and local candidate in Kim Leadbeater. Sir Keir Starmer is under enormous pressure to prevent the buoyant Conservative Party taking another ‘red wall’ seat, but the outcome has been muddied by the presence of the redoubtable George Galloway. It is quite conceivable that his candidature will take crucial votes away from Labour so allowing Leeds councillor Ryan Stephenson to gain a shock victory.

From: Dr R Kimble, Leeds.

Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn was a prominent Remain supporter.Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn was a prominent Remain supporter.
Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn was a prominent Remain supporter.

CAN I just say that Boris Johnson’s wedding was definitely not a distraction away from the worst week of his career or the pitiful performance of this government over the Covid pandemic response? He couldn’t be that cynical, could he? He is, after all, a model of honesty and integrity, isn’t he?

From: Peter Rickaby, West Park, Selby.

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THE next time a teachers’ union leader proposes a constructive solution on how to improve children’s education without it costing the nation a fortune, the sun will be rising in the west.

Biden’s tax plan aids US

From: Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton.

PROFESSOR Graham Scott, of Hunmanby (The Yorkshire Post, June 1) asks why I voted against the Labour amendment to the Finance Bill to unilaterally agree to President Biden’s plan for a global minimum corporation tax.

The ‘minimum tax proposal’, formerly known as OECD’s Pillar Two and now often referred to as the ‘Biden tax plan’, raises taxes for multinationals in the countries where they are headquartered, so under this proposal the profits diverted into tax havens would be transferred to the US, not the UK.

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In fact, if only the minimum tax proposal was agreed, the UK would tax the likes of Amazon, Google or Facebook less as the Government has to abolish the Digital Services Tax as a condition of the agreement, which was introduced as a short-term proxy to increase the tax take from these giants.

For the UK to fairly tax these organisations there must also be a deal on the OECD’s ‘Pillar One’, which would transfer rights to tax profits to the place where the sales were made. We don’t currently have these rights, which is the primary reason that some multinationals are under-taxed in the UK.

President Biden has suggested the US might agree to some form of a Pillar One deal covering the world’s top 100 companies, but the details are very vague at this stage. An historic step toward fair taxation is within our grasp, but we need to play our cards right, not play to the crowd.

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