CORBYN’S £83BN TAX ROBBERY

His ‘Marxist manifesto’ is branded not credible

FAMILIES face a triple whammy of tax rises, price hikes and lower wages as a result of Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘colossal’ socialist spending splurge, experts warned last night.

Launching Labour’s ‘manifesto of hope’ yesterday, Mr Corbyn said he would raise taxes by £83billion a year, borrow £400billion and spend hundreds of billions more on a 1970s-style nationalisation of key sectors of the economy.

The manifesto proposed 12 new tax rises – but experts warned even these would not be enough to fund the plans.

Mr Corbyn also declared war on aspiration – scrapping the right-to-buy for council tenants, ending tax breaks for married couples, unveiling a £725million hike in inheritance tax, slapping a swingeing tax on second homes, and putting VAT on private school fees.

The extraordinary 107-page document was drawn up by Mr Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a selfdeclared Marxist who has boasted of his dream of ‘overthrowing capitalism’.

The proposed tax hikes are 71 per cent higher than those outlined in Labour’s 2017 manifesto, which itself was seen as the most Left-wing prospectus since Michael Foot’s 1983 manifesto, dubbed ‘the longest suicide note in history’.

Labour’s massive tax grab would fund a huge package of electoral bribes designed to revive Mr Corbyn’s flagging electoral fortunes.

The manifesto offered to provide a huge range of services free of charge, including social care, student tuition fees, broadband, TV licences for the over-75s, dental checks and hospital car parking fees.

Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell say the ‘colossal’ tax grab would affect only big business and those earning more than £80,000 a year.

But independent analysts rubbished the claim – and warned that Labour’s extraordinary plans would hit millions of ordinary families in the pocket.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned Labour’s huge tax raid on business would be ‘passed on to companies’ employees through lower wages, and customers through higher prices – and that means all of us’.

The independent think-tank said Labour’s plans would push the overall tax burden ‘well above levels sustained in the UK since the Second World War’.

The centre-Left Resolution Foundation added that Labour’s plans would ‘take the size of the state to a post-war high, outside of recessions’. The organisation predicted that under Labour the state’s share of GDP would rise to 45.1 per cent within five years – overtaking Germany. The warnings came as:

■ Labour confirmed that it would nationalise the railways, water companies, energy firms, Royal Mail, and broadband arm of BT;

■ The party indicated it would look to keep free movement of people even if Britain leaves the EU;

■ Its manifesto axed plans for further rises in the state pension age in the coming years, despite warnings it would cost tens of billions in the future;

■ It pledged to scrap anti-strike laws brought in by the Tories;

■ Labour proposed a £9 billion increase in benefit spending, reversing years of restraint;

■ Its manifesto promised a 5 per

‘Overthrowing capitalism’

cent increase in public sector pay at a cost of £5billion a year – a key demand of Labour’s union paymasters;

■ Mr Corbyn said Labour would build another 2,000 onshore wind farms – a rise of nearly 30 per cent.

■ Labour dropped Mr Corbyn’s pledge to wipe out £120billion of student debt;

■ Mr Corbyn sowed fresh confusion over Labour’s Brexit policy by replying ‘both’ when asked if he wanted to leave the EU or remain.

IFS director Paul Johnson said it was ‘simply not credible’ to claim Labour’s plans could be funded just by taxes on the well-off. He added: ‘If you want to transform the scale and scope of the state then you need to be clear that the tax increases required to do that will need to be widely shared, rather than pretending that everything can be paid for by companies and the rich.

‘It is impossible to understate how extraordinary this manifesto is in terms of the sheer scale of money being spent and raised through the tax system.

‘The Labour manifesto suggests they would raise all of that from companies and people earning more than £80,000 a year. That is simply not credible.’

Fact-checking organisation Full Fact said it was ‘not true’ that Labour’s plans would not hit people on middle incomes.

The organisation cited the plan to scrap the marriage allowance as an example of a tax raid on people on lower incomes.

‘Scrapping the allowance will hit 1.7million couples who benefit from a tax break worth about £230 a year.

The allowance is available only to those people earning less than £50,000 a year.

At a launch event in Birmingham, Mr Corbyn said that Labour was offering ‘real change’, with policies that the ‘political establishment’ has blocked for generations.

Boris Johnson, who will launch the Conservatives’ manifesto on Sunday, said none of Labour’s promises was credible.

He added: ‘What we want to know is, what is his plan to deliver Brexit? ‘Until we get Brexit done, none of this carries any economic credibility whatsoever.’

Comment – Page 22

‘Package of electoral bribes’