Jeremy Corbyn defends Labour’s tax and spend plan
Jeremy Corbyn has defended his party’s fiscal policies, doubling down on the promise that only the richest in society will pay for a Labour government’s spending plans.
Labour’s manifesto has promised £83bn extra spending a year by 2023/24, which it says would be paid for by tax increases on corporations and the top five per cent of earners.
Read more: Sajid Javid attacks Labour’s claims that the rich will pay for the manifesto
However, Corbyn was asked by the BBC last night to explain how this claim stacks up with policies that will scrap the marriage allowance and increase dividend taxes.
Corbyn said increased public spending would offset the effect of those policies.
“The purpose behind our manifesto is to recognise we have to do something about the underfunding of our services,” he said.
It came as chancellor Sajid Javid attacked Labour’s economic plans, claiming middle earners would be hit by higher taxes.
At a campaign event yesterday, Javid said there was a £385bn “black hole” in Labour’s manifesto costings. “Labour’s numbers only add up with significant tax rises for the 95 per cent, not just the five,” he said.
Tory analysis said six Labour policies would cost “families on all incomes”.
It added Labour’s plans to scrap the married person’s allowance would hit millions of households, and that a reverse in recent inheritance tax cuts would hit “significant numbers” of people not in the top five per cent of earners.
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The analysis said Labour’s plans to increase corporation tax would do the same.
Labour called the analysis “fake news”.