Callum Anderson, the Labour MP for Buckingham and Bletchley, has called for a full review of stamp duty on shares, making him the most senior Labour backbencher to publicly challenge the levy. Anderson, who previously worked as a policy adviser at the London Stock Exchange (LSE), set out the demand in a lengthy essay posted to LinkedIn, urging Chancellor John Healey to act at the Budget.
The tax currently applies at a standard rate of 0.5% on share purchases in UK-listed companies and raises between £3bn and £4bn each year in government revenue, according to the snippet. Anderson argued it raises costs for ordinary investors and ‘makes buying British much less attractive relative to international companies.’
The Case Against Stamp Duty on Shares
The backdrop to Anderson’s intervention is a collapse in LSE activity. City AM reported that just £184m was raised on the LSE in the first nine months of 2025, against roughly £17bn in 2021, making 2025 the worst year for London listings in more than three decades.
David Smith, portfolio manager at Henderson High Income, put the annual cost to the exchequer of the levy at £3.3bn and argued that ‘increased economic activity, higher share prices and additional tax receipts from capital gains and income tax, could offset or even exceed this loss in the long run,’ according to Trustnet.
The tax’s defenders point to its scale. HMRC stamp tax statistics show Stamp Duty Reserve Tax (SDRT) collected £3,050m in the 2024–25 financial year, up 33% from £2,295m in 2023–24. Including stamp duty on paper share transfers, total stamp taxes on shares reached £4,320m in 2024–25. That follows a 15% fall to £3.2bn between 2022–23 and 2023–24, according to government figures cited by Reuters.
The tax is already absent on shares listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Former Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a three-year stamp duty holiday for companies newly listing on the LSE main market, extending the AIM exemption model to the primary exchange.
Richard Stone, chief executive of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), called the holiday a ‘welcome baby step towards reviving UK listing’ but said the chancellor ‘should have been bolder and abolished it permanently on shares of investment trusts and shares purchases within ISAs and pensions,’ Trustnet reported. Julia Hoggett, chief executive of the LSE (part of LSEG), described the move as an ‘important first step,’ Reuters reported.
Anderson’s Broader Growth Agenda
The stamp duty call sits alongside a wider package of proposals in Anderson’s essay. He called for investment reliefs that allow founders to defer capital gains tax liabilities when reinvesting proceeds from business sales into new UK companies.
He also called for corporation tax expensing to be extended beyond plant and machinery to a broader range of products. Anderson urged the government to begin ‘serious preparatory design’ for a UK state pension fund, arguing it could reduce UK government debt’s exposure to overseas investors.
On pension fund mandation, Anderson suggested ‘requiring default pension funds’ to buy UK equities as one approach, while noting that the British Business Bank and the National Wealth Fund could ease risks on savers’ investments as an alternative to mandation.
Anderson also raised the prospect of a defence gilt targeted at older generations, framed as trading off ‘a future inheritance tax liability for a lower coupon today.’ The proposal, backed by the Liberal Democrats and some Labour MPs, is aimed at boosting military spending. Healey resigned from Sir Keir Starmer’s government over the failure to commit to raising defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030; Starmer rejected the bond idea, warning against ‘irresponsible borrowing.’
Separately, the UK government has published draft legislation to replace the existing two stamp taxes on shares with a single self-assessed 0.5% Securities Transfer Tax, with a technical consultation closing on 7 September 2026, according to Deloitte’s UK Tax Policy Map. Whether that process will widen to address the rate itself will depend on how much political momentum Anderson’s intervention generates.
