BORIS: LABOUR WILL ‘CLOBBER’ YOU WITH TAX HIKES
PM warns Corbyn is ‘danger to British economy and jobs’
BORIS Johnson warned that Labour will “clobber hard-working people” after a bombshell dossier laid bare 24 taxes planned by Jeremy Corbyn.
The PM said Labour had proposed a new levy
every two months
since Mr Corbyn took office in September 2015 and dubbed him a danger to the economy and jobs.
Labour needs billions to pay for its extravagant promises and is also planning completely new taxes.
The 24 ways it will hit people in the pocket include hikes in income and council taxes, another levy pushing up the cost of a family holiday – and even introducing a garden charge.
Mr Johnson said: “Jeremy Corbyn is a danger to the British economy and jobs up and down the country. He wants to clobber hard-working people with endless tax hikes that would leave less money in people’s pockets. Labour can’t be trusted with the economy or to deliver Brexit – all they offer is more dither and delay.”
The Tory dossier sets out each tax grab Labour has floated under Mr Corbyn.
It shows shadow chancellor John McDonnell backed a report calling for tax increases on those earning more than £28,080. This would leave 12.4 million workers around £2,500 poorer.
Other proposals from Labour’s last manifesto include scrapping the marriage allowance that saves around four million working cou- ples up to £230 a year. A land value tax would push up bills for those with large gardens. The party’s blueprint also set out plans to reverse “giveaways” on inheritance tax, forcing more families to pay punishing death duties.
People giving loved ones cash while they are still alive could also be hammered.
Mr McDonnell is considering a gift tax on anything totalling more than £125,000 over a lifetime, penalising families who want to pass on property or help children on to the housing ladder. Families heading overseas on holiday would face paying about £200 extra under proposals to increase air passenger duty, introduce a frequent-flyer tax and end duty-free flights.
Labour is also looking at replacing council tax with a property levy based on the value of a home, which would hit middle England in particular.
The cash grab would see increased costs for hauliers, a windfall tax on train operators’s profits and a higher levy on medical insurance.
During the last election, the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that Labour’s plans would raise taxes to their “highest ever peacetime level”.
Treasury minister Simon Clarke described Mr Corbyn’s plans as eye-watering and said: “Labour would wreck the economy and it’s hard-working families who would pay the price, just like last time.” The dossier was released as Mr McDonnell signalled Labour would back a four-day working week, despite the cost to employers in both public and private sectors.
Speaking at the launch of what he said was a “terrific” report he had commissioned on how to achieve shorter working hours, Mr McDonnell said he wanted to improve the quality of life for workers.
The report, by cross-bench peer Robert Skidelsky, calls for new laws to introduce a 35-hour working week in the public sector over the next 10 years.
Stuck
Lord Skidelsky said: “Since the 1980s, hours of work have stopped falling and have remained stuck at just over 40 hours per week.”
Mr McDonnell said Labour wanted to adopt the report’s recommendations into party policy in anticipation of an imminent general election.
The peer’s report also suggests the Government should guarantee a job or training to anyone who cannot find private-sector work at a fixed hourly rate. It states that should not be lower than the national living wage.
When pushed on whether a Labour government would introduce a four-day working week, Mr McDonnell replied: “Watch this space.”
‘Labour can’t be trusted with the economy or to deliver Brexit’