Stat of the day: £30

Topshop tycoon Sir Philip Green et al might have plenty to complain about when it comes to the Government’s 50p income tax rate, but a report out today has suggested that even us ordinary folk will eventually be impacted by it. According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, by 2016 the tax will have sent so many high earners scurrying abroad that eventually, less well-off taxpayers are going to have to plug the gap – leaving households to fork out an extra 30 quid a year.

To be fair to Labour, which introduced the tax in 2009, the flood of high earners moving to tax havens that many had expected has actually been more like a trickle. While Green almost immediately upped sticks to Monaco, some, like former M&S chief Sir Stuart Rose, have actually called for the Government to delay scrapping the tax (which is expected at some point in the next couple of years). The CEBR, though, reckons the tax has ‘largely become voluntary for high earners’.