‘Most Left-Wing Progam’ U.K. Labour Party Has Had in 30 Years Will Be Paid for By Taxing the Rich

According the new manifesto the Labour Party officially launched on Tuesday, under Jeremy Corbyn the British opposition party plans to raise taxes only on wealthy individuals and corporations in order to finance a progressive plan that includes getting rid of university tuition fees.

Corbyn’s party is currently campaigning for the snap election conservative Prime Minister Theresa May called for June 8. While the Tory Party is ahead in the polls, the opposition has been steadily gaining traction and its proposed policies have proven to be popular.

From The New York Times:

On domestic issues, voters face a stark choice. While many of Labour’s policies are popular — among them, renationalizing some rail, energy and utility companies — the party faces difficult questions about how it plans to fulfill its pledges without large increases in taxes and government borrowing.

Its response was to say that 95 percent of earners would pay no more tax, but that the burden would start to rise on earnings of more than 80,000 pounds, about $103,000 at current exchange rates, and in corporate taxes. There would also be a “fat cat” tax that companies would pay on salaries above £330,000, or about $425,000.

Earnings of more than £80,000 would be taxed at 45 percent, while those of over £123,000, or $159,000, would face a 50 percent rate. Companies would pay a 2.5 percent tax on salaries paid above £330,000 and 5 percent on those above £500,000, about $645,000. And the corporate tax rate would rise to 26 percent by 2020 from 19 percent.

Those increases aimed to cover $62.7 billion in spending pledges and underlined the ideological shift Labour has made since the Blair years, when one of the prime minister’s closest aides, Peter Mandelson, said that Labour was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes.” … Britain, Mr. Corbyn said at his manifesto announcement at the University of Bradford, had been “run for the rich, the elite and the vested interests,” adding: “They have benefited from tax cuts and bumper salaries while millions have struggled.”

Read more.

— Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

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