Borel: VAT Club members 'would need to sign a pledge in return for tax cut'
A week on from the second Tax Equality Day, the veteran campaigner also claimed he has support from MPs across the political divide for his campaign to cut VAT from 20% to 5%.
Borel told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser he had so far had face-to-face meetings with 65 MPs and expected to have lobbied 100 by the end of the year.
He said: “I can give you the names of just three MPs — Charlotte Leslie, Toby Perkins and Greg Mulholland — and you can see that we have support from Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. I have also spoken to Paul Nuttall of UKIP, who was amazed at how much we can help the UK by doing this.
“We have an election next year and will see the parties start to set priorities. I’ve had many conversations with Labour and know that what they’d like is a contract signed between businesses and Government in which they promise the savings from the VAT cut will be re-invested.
“I have discussed this with the VAT Club members and most of them have agreed.”
Sales hike
The VAT Club reported that last Wednesday’s day of action had seen like-for-like sales at participating venues rise by as much as 11%.
Borel said: “It proves that when you cut prices by 7.5% you obtain a 10% to 20% customer increase, which means the VAT Club projection of creating 670,000 jobs thanks to a VAT cut from 20% to 5% may be a little conservative.
“Even if we don’t get the reduction we want, which would cost the Treasury £7.8bn, any cut would have a huge impact. Imagine what £6bn or £7bn can do for employment — so much more than the £300m from the beer-duty cut. In the case of VAT, savings would be passed on to every operator.”
A total of 51 companies took part in last week’s action, up from 50 last year but not representing all of the 55 VAT Club members.
Borel said he expected a successful second Tax Equality Day to boost membership of the VAT Club, with his prediction that by Christmas he would have 75 members.
