The retired football player and multi-millionaire Sol Campbell launched into a Twitter tirade on Labour’s plans for a mansion tax last week.
Ed Miliband pledged that, should he be elected, he would implement a tax on homes worth over £2 million. The tax would raise £1.2 billion for an ailing NHS. Labour have argued that wealthy people pay comparatively little in council tax; an owner of a £140m penthouse pays £1,353, while the average council tax bill of a £284,000 home is £1,114. This means that the average homeowner pays a relative 390 times more in council tax than the penthouse owner.
However, the former England defender clearly thought people with more money paying more tax was unfair, and tweeted his complaints. “This Tax on homes is a cheap & easy way to extract money from individuals that have done well!” Campbell complained, as if that’s a bad thing. Campbell, somehow worried about how the ultra-rich will cope with paying more tax, also called the Labour party the “grim reaper”of the rich and successful, and complained that “they don’t trust bankers”, again as if that’s somehow a bad thing.
Campbell, who owns a six-storey, five-bedroom house in the smartest part of Chelsea, advertised for rent at £75,000, as well as Hallington Hall, a Georgian mansion in Northumberland, urged his 35,000 followers to “listen to the @Conservatives” and “embrace the people and companies who make this country great” like him, who was paid by Arsenal £5m a year to prevent a ball from entering a net.
Campbell also tweeted, “Suggestion: separate & flexible council tax linked to actual earning; if you earn a lot you pay more, if not working you pay very little?”, seemingly unaware that a tax based on income already exists, and is called income tax.
When considering Campbell’s working class upbringing, he seems to be an unlikely defender of the rich, but since his flurry of tweets has maintained his beliefs, and even told the Daily Telegraph that he is considering joining the Conservative Party to fight mansion tax.
[Matthew Hayhow – @Machooo]
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