UK government distances itself from Lord Turner
While the UK government has for many months now been attacking the UK financial system and financial sector on a regular basis, today's comments from Lord Turner regarding a potential financial tax appear to have formed a wedge between the two parties. Despite backing Lord Turner to the hilt on numerous occasions in the past, the UK government has today distanced itself from his comments with a simple response "The remit for taxation in the UK is with the UK Treasury". So has Lord Turner been hung out to dry?
In many ways it seems inconceivable that Lord Turner issued such a vicious attack against the UK financial sector without first talking to the UK government, or at least fairly prominent figures in the Labour Party. If the UK government played no role in today's debacle and it does not appear willing to support Lord Turner in the short term, does this make his position untenable and leave the UK government open to further accusations of another U-turn?
While a further press release from the FSA has suggested that the chairman was only talking through various possibilities and in no way backed a transaction tax, the damage has already been done.
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