Responding to Stormont Finance Minister Mairtín Ó Muilleoir’s commitment to push ahead with cutting corporation, possible below 12.5%, South Belfast Labour Alternative representative Sean Burns has said:
“While corporation tax in the South is officially set at 12.5%, the real rate of tax paid by big business is around 6.5%. Google pays an effective tax rate of 0.25%. The logic of Minister Ó Muilleoir’s position is a race to the bottom in which the only winners will be the CEOs while our vital public services will be devastated. Attempting to out Tory the Tories will not deliver a future for working class communities.”
“The DUP and Sinn Féin has already agreed to slash thousands of public sector jobs. Now they want to slash thousands more to fund a corporation tax cut. And for what? More call centres? Tobacco firm JP Gallagher’s categorically stated that corporation tax had not been a consideration when they decided to close their Ballymena plant. They moved to Poland in search of a 50% reduction in wages.”
“How can Sinn Fein claim to be an anti-austerity party when their wealthy Finance Minister is promoting reverse Robin Hood schemes like this? We need a new kind of politics that puts people and planet before the interests of profit and corporations. Instead of austerity and handouts to big business, we need public investment and nationalisation to save jobs when profiteering bosses threaten to throw workers on the scrapheap.”
