Vote Tax Justice in UK election

From guest blogger Chris Jordan:

After months of phoney war between the parties, it’s quite a relief to get the ‘real’ election campaign underway.

As usual, tax and spending is already a key issue - but this time around comes with the added potency of the budget deficit and the continuing fall out from the financial crisis. But we think the choice isn’t just about who’ll raise taxes or slash spending the most.

We know billions more needs to be found to protect public services in the UK, whilst also tacking poverty and climate change abroad. The impact of the financial crisis has been truly global and many governments in developing countries are facing the same fiscal squeeze as the UK. This makes delivering tax justice more urgent than ever.

As the polls tighten, candidates from all parties are listening to their constituents like never before. More new MPs will be elected this time around than at any election since 1945. That’s why we’ve chosen this election to put tax justice on the map.

With a good deal of help from Alvin Mosioma from Tax Justice Network Africa, we’re asking voters to contact all their parliamentary candidates before the election. As Alvin says “Tax justice is the link between the global finance and poverty in Africa.”

We’re calling on all candidates to pledge their support for tax justice. We want them to champion country by country financial reporting, as we’ll as the Robin Hood Tax on the banks.

Our aim is to put tax justice in the map in every single constituency in the UK. We’re off to a great start, but there are still lots of candidates who haven’t heard from us yet.

Please take a couple of minutes to send an email to all your candidates and put tax justice on the map where you live. Thanks!