Labour backs free bus travel scheme – at a cost of £1.4bn

JEREMY CORBYN will today announce plans for free bus travel for anyone under 25 with a policy that aims to woo 13 million voters and would cost the Treasury £1.4billion.

Labour says that the policy would be paid for using money from Vehicle Excise Duty, which is forecast to bring in £6.7 billion by 2021.

However, that money is earmarked for new roads, meaning that any future road building would have to be paid for out of Labour’s “national transformation fund”, a £250 billion scheme raised through additional borrowing.

Last night John O’connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance called the policy a subsidy for “24-yearold bankers”.

“As with their ‘pledge’ to abolish tuition fees, this is another transfer of wealth from hard-pressed taxpayers to young middle-class voters,” he said. “Bus subsidies already run into the billions, costing each household £80 a year. Why on earth should 25-year-old taxpayers on minimum wage subsidise 24-year-old bankers to nip between meetings and lunches in the City?”

Nusrat Ghani, a transport minister, said: “Our balanced approach to the economy means that we are able to help people with the cost of travel by extending railcards to everyone under the age of 30.”

In Derby, Mr Corbyn will say that the scheme, which could save youngsters £1,000 a year, will allow them to “travel to work, to study and to visit friends”, adding: “Young people also tend to be in lower paid, more insecure work, and they spend a higher proportion of their income on travel. Giving them free bus travel will make a huge difference.”