Hello. Good evening. Its me, Jacob Rees Mogg on state of the nafion Jacob Rees Mogg on state of the nation tonight. Hes got a date for the Spring Budget, but will the chancellor, jeremy hunt, be announcing the scrappage of inheritance tax on the 6th of march. 7 thats what ill be arguing in my monologue, arguing for in my monologue, as it emerges nearly 400 it emerges that nearly 400 children the age of six children under the age of six were referred tavistocks were referred to the tavistocks controversial gender clinic. Ill be asking whether its ever all right for children this young to be referred for those sorts. With war sorts of consultations. With war raging in the middle east, ukraine has been somewhat forgotten about in recent months. There have been months. But there have been important developments there over christmas period, the over the christmas period, the ukrainians sunk ukrainians have sunk a key russian warship in the black sea, russians have taken sea, and the russians have taken a town in the donbas region. A town in the donbas region. Well be getting the latest and were in the middle of a shoplifting epidemic. Thats according to a new analysis showing that over 200,000 cases went the year to went unsolved in the year to july. I will speaking to a july. I will be speaking to a former metropol Police Detective, inspector , who detective, chief inspector, who now runs his own Security Firm , now runs his own Security Firm, whos privately prosecuted hundreds of shoplifters. What does he think is behind this epidemic . State of the nation starts now. Starts now. Energetic and dynamic are the watchwords of my panel today. Journalist and broadcaster Benjamin Butterworth will be with me alongside conservative homes assistant editor William Atkinson. As always, i want to hear from you. Its a crucial part of the programme. Email me today on a different email. A special christmas email gbviews gbnews. Com. But now its what weve all been waiting for. The news of the day with polly middlehurst. Jacob. Middlehurst. Jacob. Thank you and good evening to you. Well, the uk was battered by snow, wind and rain today as storm garrett barrelled in, leaving homes without power and drivers trapped in their cars. Police scotland declared a Major Incident as snow brought cars to a standstill on the a9 to aviemore, and 27,000 homes in northern scotland also experienced power cuts, with local Energy Company sgn saying theyve now restored power to 8000 homes and are currently working hard to reconnect the rest. Passenger cars on the east coast main line between london and scotland were told not to bother travelling, and thousands of other travellers at airports had delays as well, with flights grounded, multiple weather warnings remain in place, not just in scotland but across the rest of the uk today and ferry passengers were facing long delays today of up to an hour and a half at the port of dover due to French Police going sick. Due to French Police going sick. And there was increased demand at the port today as well as people tried to get away for a post christmas trip, enhanced passport checks by French Border officials following the uks withdrawal from the eu have also increased processing times. Now increased processing times. Now the chancellor, jeremy hunt , has the chancellor, jeremy hunt, has announced that the Spring Budget will be set out on the 6th of march, reports also suggesting that downing street could axe inheritance tax and reduce income tax. Sir keir starmer has income tax. Sir keir starmer has seemingly instructed his frontbench team to finalise their manifesto plans, telling shadow ministers to have their policy proposals ready by mid january. Now policy proposals ready by mid january. Now in the united states, the Michigan Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to remove the former president , remove the former president , donald trump, from the 2024 president ial ballot that ruling, in stark contrast to the recent legal ruling in colorado , where legal ruling in colorado, where mr trump was, disqualify from running for president due to his alleged role in the capitol hill riots. That decision has now been paused pending an appeal. Been paused pending an appeal. In france, the former president of the European Commission and architect of the euro, Jacques Delors , has died at the age of delors, has died at the age of 98. Monsieur delors was a leading figure on the french political left during the 1980s, and was perhaps best known in britain for his feisty relationship with the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Frances president emmanuel macron, has honoured his fellow politician today , saying hed politician today, saying hed been a tireless architect of our europe. The number of people europe. The number of people shopping in high street sales across the uk was down more than 20 on boxing day yesterday. 20 on boxing day yesterday. Figures from the mri Software Found that whilst footfall was up before 3 00 in the afternoon, it was significantly lower across the whole day. The group across the whole day. The group said the only location to experience an overall rise in high street visitors was centre. High street visitors was centre. London thats the news on gb news across the uk on tv , in news across the uk on tv, in your car, on Digital Radio and on your smart speaker. This is britains news channel. Britains news channel. Well , before i get into the well, before i get into the monologue, i thought id say welcome back and hope you had a very Merry Christmas if you listened to the special that i did with David Starkey and tessa dunlop on christmas day, you know that the medieval people had 12 days of celebration and were only three days into it. So i hope you enjoy the next nine days as well. But lets nine days as well. But lets hope can have bigger hope we can have bigger celebrations later into next year with the budget on the 6th of march on inheritance tax , of march on inheritance tax, because inheritance tax is a pernicious and bad tax, which ought to be scrapped. Why not . Ought to be scrapped. Why not . Because youve been taxed twice, actually, in many ways youre taxed twice on lots of things. When you go shopping and you pay vat or paying tax a second time on money that you earned on which youve paid income tax. So i dont think thats the strongest reason strongest argument. The reason inheritance tax is such a bad tax is because of its economic consequences , as it leads to the consequences, as it leads to the misallocation of capital, and that undermines economic progress , us and investment. That undermines economic progress , us and investment. Why progress, us and investment. Why and how . Well because people are worried about inheritance tax. They invest in things that they know will be limited in their inheritance tax burden. So inheritance tax burden. So instead of buying, for example , instead of buying, for example, a ftse 100 company, they will buy a Small Company because a ftse 100 Company Always is liable to inheritance tax. If youre over the threshold, where is a Small Company may be exempt. You see the same with farmland , farm businesses and farmland. , farm businesses and farmland. Within them is inheritance tax free. But if you own a house or a property thats built on something that was farmland, its not right. So you distort the investor payment and you also encourage people to hold on to investments that theyd otherwise be better off selling. And reallocating the capital. Why is that . Well, because of the combination of Capital Gains tax followed by inheritance tax. If you are elderly and you have an asset, an investment that in the accountants phraseology is pregnant with gain, you dont want to sell it because youll pay want to sell it because youll pay 20 or potentially 28 on the capital gain. And then if the capital gain. And then if you die the next day, youll pay 40 on inheritance tax. And this 40 on inheritance tax. And this means that you hold on to weak investments rather than realising the gain and putting it into a new and better investment. And what economic consequence does this have is it means that money is not used as productively as it ought to be. Its not invested in those things that will drive the economy in, in to the next century. So thats why its century. So thats why its a bad tax. And what is taxation all about . Well, its about raising the amount of money a government needs to raise with the least disadvantage to the economy. Accepting that the extraction of all taxation has to some extent, a negative effect. But inheritance tax is particularly bad. And its also particularly bad. And its also bad because its not linked to a transaction where income tax and vat are. There is a cash transaction going through at which the government, Inland Revenue , hmrc takes a bit. The revenue, hmrc takes a bit. The inheritance tax assets need to be sold potentially at the wrong time in the cycle of the investment. Also raises comparatively little money. £7 billion well under 1 of the total income received by the state each year. So you have total income received by the state each year. So you have a knock on a bigger economic effect for a low amount of tax, which is the definition of an inefficient form of taxation. And you get enormous efforts for people to try and get round it using the legitimate schemes that the government has invented, including in one occasion i knew an old man who decided to get married to get round inheritance tax. It had a certain degree of success, though not necessarily entirely what he would have wanted, but thats another, another matter. So it is an inefficient, bad economic tax, but also the politics of it. Fascinating although only 4 or 5 of estates pay although only 4 or 5 of estates pay the tax , 31 of people think pay the tax, 31 of people think that they will pay the tax. Its oddly an aspirational tax. People hope they will be well enough off that theyll be caughtin enough off that theyll be caught in the trap. And 15 of people think theyll get an inheritance that will be hit by it. So for scrapping a single tax that raises a small amount of money, the government gets a relatively big bang for its buck. And it would scrap something that labour and the lib dems would be committed to reintroduce. And so if you think of all those People Living in the south of the country who have housing eyes that are valuable and children or grandchildren or nieces and nephews who they might like to leave it to, they will face a real choice at the next election. If the conservatives have got rid of it, because nobody else would do the same economically and efficient politically powerful. Its time to scrap the inheritance tax in the Spring Budget. As you know, as always , budget. As you know, as always, i want to hear from you. And as i want to hear from you. And as i said, its a different email today. I said, its a different email today. Hey, its gb views at gb today. Hey, its gb views at gb news. Com, but im not delighted to be joined by a very distinguished panel who im very grateful to for turning out on the third day of christmas. Journalist and broadcaster Benjamin Butterworth and assistant editor at conservativehome William Atkinson, benjamin, you atkinson, um, benjamin, you would like inheritance tax to stay. You think it is a fair tax . Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you make the economic argument and i dont agree at all. If you take people like Mark Zuckerberg or simon cowell or bill gates, very, very rich people to various degrees, they have said for example, that they wont pass their wealth, their huge wealth onto their children because they think it stifles creative liberty that the children of the very wealthy, who know theyll get millions of pounds in some cases pounds or billions in some cases , are not motivated to work for themselves. Think i , are not motivated to work for themselves. Think i think themselves. So i think i think thats flawed but thats a thats a flawed but thats a completely different economic point saying, not that point that that saying, not that capital will more efficiently capital will be more efficiently allocated if people arent planning inheritance tax. Planning for inheritance tax. Youre saying that some parents dont want their children have but thats children to have it, but thats an different argument. An entirely different argument. Well, i think i think i think its a strong argument it its a strong argument that it affects the decisions work affects the decisions to work hard, kids will hard, that those kids will have. Its unfair on and i think its unfair on that principle. But then you have fact if youre not have the fact that if youre not taxing it on inherited rights, then that theres then that means that theres a gap has to be made up in gap that has to be made up in the real world. And that means that you cant taxes on that you cant cut taxes on peoples income. That peoples earned income. That there might harder there might be harder to cut those tax rates and vat those income tax rates and vat and that affect and other things that affect peoples. And i peoples productivity. And i think the reality, jeremy think in the reality, jeremy hunt, know, has hunt, who, you know, has a pretty hard at moment pretty hard job at the moment because things pretty bad , because things are pretty bad, then he really going to want then is he really going to want to the very rich to to take it off the very rich to not take it off . Ordinary people going work . Not take it off . Ordinary people goiiwilliam,k . Not take it off . Ordinary people goiiwilliam, the reason i dont william, the reason i dont agree with that is twofold. One is think should cut is that i think we should cut expenditure billion and expenditure by £7 billion and pay expenditure by £7 billion and pay that way. But pay for it that way. But secondly, the engine economic secondly, the engine of Economic Growth efficient growth is the efficient allocation and allocation of capital and removing that leads to bad removing a tax that leads to bad allocation of capital shrinks the economy as well. I agree that inheritance tax has various negative consequences. But as you said consequences. But as you said yourself, jacob, so do all taxes. And also, you know, i would also agree that i would like the government be more efficient. Government to be more efficient. And for it to be spending less so can lowered. And so all taxes can be lowered. And but yourself and your but again, yourself and your colleagues are struggling to actually way can actually agree on any way we can actually agree on any way we can actually cut public spending. So then think that looks like then i think that looks like something of a pipe dream. Then i think that looks like so aething of a pipe dream. Then i think that looks like so a basic of a pipe dream. Then i think that looks like so a basic sense, ipe dream. Then i think that looks like so a basic sense, he dream. Then i think that looks like so a basic sense, he drefew in a basic sense, i think few politicians get credit for politicians ever get credit for stuff already done stuff theyve already done going into election. So if the into an election. So even if the chancellor did find some money back the back the obr back down the back of the obr sofa cut inheritance tax, sofa and cut inheritance tax, i dont think youd any dont think youd get any political it First Political benefit from it first of all. But secondly, i think its unfair as its simply unfair as as benjamin um, that benjamin has suggested, um, that at when millions at a time when millions are being taken into higher tax thresholds due to fiscal drag to be any that the be spending any money that the chancellor can to on chancellor can find to spend on tax cut, that tax cuts on a tax cut, that essentially makes it easier for wealthy men like himself. And the hand on the Prime Minister to hand on wealth own children in wealth to their own children in is a bad political look for is a very bad political look for the and as the conservatives. And as somebody who has a vested interest conservatives interest in the conservatives trying next election, trying to win the next election, i trying to inheritance i think trying to an inheritance tax rather say, taking tax now rather than say, taking a off income tax, would be a penny off income tax, would be politically morally unwise. But politically, isnt it very because and very strong because labour and the would have to the lib dems would have to promise to bring it back, and therefore its not the past, it is in terms what is the future. In terms of what the others do. The others would do. Um, yes and no. Because i think they the argument think if they made the argument that they would reinstitute the inheritance or indeed inheritance tax cuts or indeed just jeremy just scrap any cut that jeremy Hunt Institute introduces and just scrap any cut that jeremy hunthattitute introduces and just scrap any cut that jeremy hunthat to, te introduces and just scrap any cut that jeremy hunthat to, say, troduces and just scrap any cut that jeremy hunthat to, say, spendes and just scrap any cut that jeremy hunthat to, say, spend more use that to, say, spend more money on public services, which i think widely believes that under a lot of pressure, nobody believes that. I mean, weve had that from blair and brown, and more and more spent on the nhs, and it more is spent on the nhs, and it gets and worse. It doesnt gets worse and worse. It doesnt solve problems. Gets worse and worse. It doesnt sobwell,blems. Gets worse and worse. It doesnt sobwell, items. Gets worse and worse. It doesnt sobwell, it might you might well, it might not you might know that jacob and i might know