OPINION - This is why we should scrap the tourist tax

Walk down any of London’s shopping streets today and you’ll notice something missing – not the designer shops or beautiful window displays, but the international tourists. The visitors who once spent freely in our stores, stayed in our hotels, dined in our restaurants and enriched the whole economy are no longer coming to our great city in the numbers we used to see. Many now bypass London entirely for Paris, Milan or Madrid. Those that do come are spending less than they used to. Why? Because the UK scrapped tax-free shopping.