The Chancellor’s decision to remove the ceiling on bankers’ bonuses has rapidly sparked outrage among angry Britons, who have taken to spreading cartoons of infamous fat cats like Gordon Gekko.
In his so-called mini-budget on Friday, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng outlined a number of initiatives, including eliminating the top income tax rate for the wealthiest individuals, eliminating the ceiling on bankers’ bonuses, and tightening welfare regulations.
Beginning in April, the 629,000 earners who make above £150,000 annually will pay the higher income tax rate of 40% instead of the current top rate of 45%.
However, the news has drawn criticism due to worries that it would bring back a “culture of greed” in the City at a time when the cost of living issue facing Britons is becoming worse.
People started circulating memes depicting bankers and wealthy people celebrating the decision right once, one of which included Gordon Gekko, the fictional villain of the well-known Oliver Stone film “Wall Street,” who has come to represent avarice in popular culture.
What a time to be either a millionaire or billionaire in the UK, said another user beside a picture of a luxurious vacation. I’m eagerly awaiting the trickle-down effect to affect my financial account.
One person uploaded a picture of three dressed-up guys dancing and said, “Bankers in the city right now.”
In a meme with the phrase “still waiting for banker’s bonuses to trickle down,” a skeleton was shown sitting on a bench.
The contentious choice would lift the European Union-imposed restriction on bankers’ yearly pay-outs, which had been set at 100% of their salaries or double with shareholder approval in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
According to Mr. Kwarteng, the decision will encourage international banks to invest, create employment, and pay taxes in the City.
Mr. Kwarteng announced a number of significant financial changes on Friday, including the early April 2019 implementation of the basic income tax rate reduction to 19p in the pound and the reduction of stamp duty for purchasers.
As he reaffirmed intentions to eliminate the ceiling on bankers’ bonuses and tighten welfare regulations, he said that tax cuts are “essential to solving the puzzle of growth”
However, his proposals have drawn flak.
The First Minister of Scotland said that the very rich are “laughing all the way to the real bank.”
According to shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are two “desperate gamblers chasing a losing run” with an economic strategy that rewards the “already affluent.”
The Labour frontbencher attacked the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, warning that the government had given up a “menu without pricing,” and speculating as to what Mr. Kwarteng could have “had to hide” by refusing to provide quick independent predictions of his plans.
She said that Mr. Kwarteng’s Commons speech had served as a “total deconstruction” of the Conservatives’ performance during their 12-year rule.
“We have had six so-called plans for growth from the Conservatives since 2010,” Ms. Reeves said the lawmakers, “and here they are, a litany of failure with every single one of them.”
The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are like two frantic gamblers in a casino trying to break a losing streak, she added, adding that the Government lacks a realistic strategy to produce growth.
As much as they’d want us to believe otherwise, the case put out by the Chancellor isn’t a groundbreaking concept or a paradigm-shifting thought, as the minister said.
“What this proposal amounts to is keeping company tax at its current level and bringing back national insurance payments to their March levels.” some fresh scheme.
“It’s all based on an outmoded mentality that holds that rewarding the already rich would help society as a whole,” she said.
They have opted to use trickle-down economics in instead of levelling up.
‘As (US) president Biden said this week, he is sick and tired of trickle-down economics. And he has a point. It is unreliable, insufficient, and it won’t spur the necessary wave of investment.
The mini-budget, according to the Royal College of Nursing, “gave billions to financiers and nothing to nurses.”
Pat Cullen, general secretary and CEO, said it was an obvious indication that the government had “the wrong priorities.”
Nursing will be appalled by the choice to give wealthy bankers preference over NHS and social care workers, some of whom depend on food pantries and live on the verge of poverty.
“Ministers have exploited nursing staff’s goodwill for far too long, and we’re pushing our members to vote in favour of strike action when our ballot opens on October 6,” the statement reads.
Mr. Kwarteng also disclosed his prediction that the two-year bailout for energy bills would cost around £60 billion for the first half of the year starting in October.
According to Treasury papers, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget would result in an increase in government borrowing of £72 billion.
The net financing demand for the Debt Management Office has increased from £161.7 billion in April to £234.1 billion.
Additional gilt sales totaling £62.4 billion and net Treasury bill sales totaling £10 billion will be used to pay for it.