A public petition has been launched calling for a no confidence vote in the government.
The petition, on change.org, follows the island’s Chamber of Commerce revealing its members have no confidence in this year’s Budget.
Started by a person identifying themselves by the name Jonathan Smith, the petition criticises the government imposing a 10% tax increase for working people while failing to hit the very wealthy.
They say: ‘This week 200 Isle of Man business owners or operators who are members of the Island’s Chamber of Commerce voted overwhelmingly against the Isle of Man’s Budget and publicly expressed absolutely no confidence in the Islands tax strategy and its Council of Ministers.
‘Many individual taxpayers are also very concerned about the impact of increased personal income taxes with the introduction of a new higher rate of tax (an effective 10% increase in the Islands normal rate of income tax). But this new high rate of tax does not apply to traditional high earning taxpayers as it might in other jurisdictions but essentially to most Island residents earning over the Islands living wage.’
While the time since the Budget has seen MHKs come out to ask constituents for their opinion on the future of the Alfred Cannan administration, the petition’s creator says this has been ‘a lot of empty noise’ since no member of Tynwald seems willing to stand up and push for a vote.
They added: ‘This is despite clear public feedback from businesses and individuals that they have no confidence in this current House. If you support the calling of a vote of no confidence in the Council of Ministers to test public opinion then hopefully one of our highly paid MHKs might actually do something about it. Please register your vote here.’
At the time of writing, the petition had attracted 200 signatures.
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