The Daily Mail never passes up an opportunity to bash Keir Starmer, but its December 28 front-page story – “Labour’s £400 tax hit to your family holiday” – was a particularly poor effort.
“That’s what typical family will pay in air passenger duty to fly long-haul as analysis reveals full impact of Reeves’s huge hike” read the subhead above a story by chief political correspondent David Churchill that didn’t really back up the hype.
Far from Labour piling on another £400 to the cost of a trip to, say, Disney World, they are merely raising the air passenger duty on long-haul flights by an extra £12 per person – from the current £90 to £102. The additional £36 would be a mere fraction of the cost of long-distance flights for four – which is no doubt why Churchill and editor Ted Verity preferred a nice big number like £400 instead.
