LABOUR launched their £50 billion manifesto yesterday with plans to boost the minimum wage, renationalise Royal Mail, and hike taxes for the 1.3 million people earning more than £80,000 a year.
Jeremy Corbyn said the party’s offer to the people of the UK was “radical and responsible”.
But Angus Robertson accused Labour of being a “poor copy” of the SNP, stealing policies already implemented by the Scottish Government.
Supporters at Bradford University enthusiastically cheered Corbyn as he launched “Labour’s mission” for the next five years. Announcing some of the key pledges, he referenced last week’s leak of a draft copy of the manifesto – telling activists “you may have read them already”.
The biggest cheer came when he committed to ditching tuition fees.
Labour reaffirmed their opposition to a second referendum on Scottish independence while backing a Scottish Investment Bank, a People’s Constitutional Convention and an inquiry into blacklisting.
A costings document released alongside the manifesto said the £48.6bn of spending Labour had put forward would be paid for by £48.6bn in new taxes.
Under Labour’s plans the top five per cent of earners would see their tax bill increased, with those on more than £80,000 subject to the 45p rate and those with salaries of more than £123,000 paying a new 50p rate.
According to analysis by the Institute For Fiscal Studies think-tank, 500,000 people who earn between £80,000 and £100,000 would pay an extra £400 a year, while the 50,000 people on more than £500,000 would all lose at least £22,000 a year.
The party said the hike would raise up to £6.4bn a year, and promised there would be no increases in income taxes or personal National Insurance contributions for the remaining 95 per cent.
Corporation tax would be raised, and new levies would be forced on companies with employees paid more than £330,000.
VAT would be charged on private school fees and tax giveaways on capital gains tax and inheritance tax would be reversed.
An extension to Scotland of HS2, the high-speed rail line, would be paid for by a new National Transformation Fund, which would borrow £250bn over 10 years to pay for infrastructure improvements.
The manifesto also commits Labour to renationalising the railways, Royal Mail, water companies and energy supply networks.
The party claims the Barnett consequentials of Labour’s plans will be £6.1bn to be shared between Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
“This manifesto is a draft for a better future for our country,” Corbyn said. “It’s a blueprint for what Britain could be, and a pledge of the difference a Labour government can and will make.”
He added: “This is a manifesto for all generations. We’re providing hope and genuine opportunity for everybody. I say to our children, whatever the postcode you were born in, we will make sure you have the same chance as every other child.”
The IFS questioned some of the claims in the funding document, saying individuals and companies would change their behaviour to reduce taxable income.
Robertson, the SNP’s depute leader, said voters in Scotland would recognise much of what Corbyn pledged. “Scrapping hospital parking charges, free tuition, publicly owned water, ending the Bedroom Tax, increasing renewable energy and expanding free childcare will all seem familiar to voters in Scotland," he said, "because they are already happening under an SNP government."
“And on Scotland, Labour can only mimic the Tories’ anti-independence obsession.
“In Scotland we don’t need a poor copy of the SNP, we need strong SNP voices standing up to the Tories at Westminster.”
Prime Minister Theresa May said: “I think the people who should be worried about the Labour manifesto are the ordinary working families who will find themselves paying the price for the spending commitments that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party has put forward.”
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale hailed the party’s UK manifesto as “a radical vision for the country”. She will launch a Scottish manifesto in the next two weeks.
One key difference between the two manifestos will be on the renewal of Trident. Though Corbyn is in favour of abolishing Britain’s nuclear weapons system, the official Labour policy is to keep the missile system. The Scottish Party voted against renewal.
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