When you buy UK shares you pay 0.5% stamp duty upfront yet the same transaction in US or European shares attracts zero such tax, how can the UK claim to be a competitive global financial centre?

One could argue that SDRT is a minor 0.5% and that london remains competitive due to deep capital pools, rule of law and time zone advantages but that defence ignores the marginal impact on high turnover strategies like market making, arbitrage and quantitative trading. Those strategies generate liquidity and narrow spreads which benefit all investors, and they are disproportionately harmed by a per transaction tax. A truly competitive centre would not ask liquidity providers to pay a 0.5% penalty for every leg of a hedged trade, it would abolish the tax or replace it with a minimal annual charge.