Corbyn’s £100bn plan to bankrupt Britain

JEREMY Corbyn’s plan to spend more than £100billion a year creating a socialist state was condemned yesterday as a blueprint to bankrupt the nation.

The hard-left Labour leader outlined his vision of ‘21st century socialism’ in a conference speech to the party faithful, pledging to spend more on everything from education to housing.

But analysis by the Conservatives suggests it would increase costs for taxpayers and businesses, and John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, warned: ‘This is a plan to bankrupt Britain.

‘It’s staggering that anyone who lived through the 1970s can seriously think it’s a good idea to destroy the private sector through high levels of taxation and misguided intervention by politicians.

‘Families and businesses are already struggling with punitive taxes and skyhigh bills, and this plan will only add to the burden.’

In his speech on Wednesday, Mr Corbyn pledged full employment through jobcreation projects costing £500billion over ten years, or £50billion a year.

He promised to build one million homes over five years, at a cost of £15billion a year. He also said he would create a new National Education Service to deliver lifetime access to education and training, and bring back the £30-a-week education maintenance grant for sixth-formers.

The education pledges would cost a total of around £12billion a year, funded by higher corporation tax, the Tories say.

Mr Corbyn said his party would give the self-employed access to benefits such as maternity and paternity pay, which would cost at least £2billion a year.

Scrapping the work capability assessment that checks benefit claimants are as sick and disabled as they say could result in extra costs of £3billion a year.

The Labour leader also told business to spend more on research and development, almost doubling it to 3 per cent of GDP. That would burden firms with £26billion of extra costs.

Businesses will also have to spend at least £1billion more on wages, thanks to Labour’s commitment to increase the minimum wage to more than £10 an hour.

A pledge to reinstate the ‘migrant impact fund’ to help councils cope with increased demand for public services as a result of immigration will cost £50million a year. Mr Corbyn also repeated Labour’s support for a new National Investment Bank to spend cash on better broadband, railways and energy infrastructure. It will have around £500million over a decade, or £50million a year.

The plans are already fuelling a party rift, with former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie warning VAT and income tax would double.

The Labour leader also promised to renationalise all rail operating companies. This will cost £9.3billion in the first year and an unknown amount after that.

In addition, Mr Corbyn said he would allow town halls to borrow billions more than they can now.

Professor Philip Booth, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: ‘On full employment, we currently have record employment rates.

‘The policies he proposes would produce precisely the opposite of full employment – huge numbers being thrown on the scrapheap.’

He added: ‘Nationalised industries were a huge burden on the taxpayer and provided terrible services. Most of the delays on the railways are caused by the nationalised Network Rail, which owns the infrastructure. Why does he want to privatise the successful part of the system?’

Tory MP Chris Philp said: ‘These spending figures are outrageous and they make one thing crystal clear – Labour are content to leave working people worse off by spending, borrowing and taxing even more than they did last time.’

SHAMI Chakrabarti, the Labour peer and author of the party’s widely criticised anti-Semitism report, is tipped to become shadow attorney general in a reshuffle of Mr Corbyn’s top team next week.