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U.K. Prime Minister Johnson Taken Into Intensive Care

Posted on Apr. 7, 2020

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit as Tax Notes went to press on April 6. His condition had worsened during the afternoon, a Downing Street spokesman told journalists.

Johnson has asked Dominic Raab, foreign secretary and first secretary of state, to “deputize for him where necessary,” the spokesman added. Earlier on April 6 Johnson said he was working with colleagues to fight the coronavirus and “keep everyone safe” after being admitted to the hospital for routine tests.

Newly elected Labour Party leader Keir Starmer had vowed over the weekend to work constructively with the U.K. government in tackling the coronavirus. “Under my leadership we will engage constructively with the government, not opposition for opposition’s sake,” Starmer said in his acceptance speech on April 4. “But we will test the arguments that are put forward. We will shine a torch on critical issues. . . . Our purpose when we do that is the same as the government’s, to save lives and to protect our country, a shared purpose.”

Starmer appointed Anneliese Dodds as the first female shadow chancellor of the exchequer as he named his shadow cabinet on April 6. Dodds has led the opposition’s scrutiny of finance bill measures in recent years and has demonstrated a detailed knowledge of the U.K. tax system.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak congratulated Dodds on her appointment and invited her to a virtual briefing to discuss the government’s proposed measures to protect jobs and businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Dodds said she wants to continue to work with Sunak to make sure that the schemes provide the necessary support. “There are still a lot of people currently who are falling through the gaps so we need to plug them,” she tweeted.

Dodds focused “especially on clamping down on tax avoidance by big companies” when she served on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament before becoming a member of the U.K. Parliament in 2017, according to her website. During a February 25 debate on tax avoidance and evasion, Dodds said she agreed with what MPs had said “about how global companies that do not pay their fair share of tax in this country absolutely should do so.” The digital services tax would “start to put some of those things right,” she said.

Dodds replaces John McDonnell, who has called for a wealth tax and a windfall tax on banks to fund the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis. “We will only be able to deliver and secure our future to guard against future crises if we ensure our new society is founded on a participative democracy blossoming within our communities but also within the economy and at work, buttressed by a media whose ownership is more democratically dispersed and effective in speaking truth to power,” he wrote in The Guardian on April 3.

Starmer has appointed former Labour leader Ed Miliband as shadow business, energy, and industrial secretary. Miliband resigned as party leader after the Conservatives won an outright majority at the 2015 general election. Bridget Philipson becomes shadow chief secretary to the Treasury.

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