Labour has unveiled pledges costing £48.6bn – to be funded from extra tax revenue – in its election manifesto.
Leader Jeremy Corbyn said the manifesto – including billions for schools and the NHS and an expansion of free childcare – was a “programme of hope”. The income tax rate would rise to 45p for earnings above £80,000 and then to 50p in each pound earned over £123,000.
It also includes the nationalisation of England’s water companies and scrapping university tuition fees.
Labour said all the pledges were costed, with other fundraising measures including corporation tax rises, a crackdown on tax avoidance and an “excessive pay levy” on salaries above £330,000.
But the Conservatives said working families would “pay the price” for what they said were a series of unfunded spending commitments.
he manifesto, the first to be announced by one of the major parties ahead of the 8 June election, also includes:
- Taking Britain’s railways back into public ownership
- Moving towards a publicly owned energy system
- The “reasonable management” of immigration and no “bogus targets”
- Building 100,000 affordable homes a year
- Supporting the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system
- Offering an immediate guarantee about the status of EU nationals in the UK
- Refusing to leave the EU with no deal in place
- A review into reforming council tax and business rates, in favour of options such as a land value tax.
Mr Corbyn said he was confident that once voters could “study the issues” they would conclude: “That the few have prevailed over the many for too long.