Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to increase public sector pay by 5% if Labour wins the election.
The party’s radical manifesto, launched in Birmingham today, says all public sector workers would get a pay rise of 5% – an average of £1,643 from April 2020.
After 2020, Labour promised to deliver year-on-year above-inflation pay rises…to reward and retain the people who do so much for us all.
Labour said the 105-page manifesto was fully costed, as was the Liberal Democrats manifesto launched on Wednesday.
Labour says it would raise an additional £82.9bn through a variety of taxes, including increasing income tax for the richest 5% and those earning more than £80,000, raising corporation tax and extending stamp duty reserve tax for financial transactions.
Money would also be raised by tackling tax avoidance and evasion, having an efficiency review of tax reliefs and expenditures, reversing inheritance tax cuts, imposing VAT on private school fees, scrapping the Married Persons Allowance and introducing a 200% second home tax.
Mr Corbyn told supporters at the manifesto launch Labour is on your side, as he said the attacks from the rich and powerful prove Labour is for the many not the few.
He said: The billionaires and the super rich, the tax dodgers, the bad bosses and the big polluters they own the Conservative Party.
But they don’t own us. They don’t own the Labour Party. The people own the Labour Party. That’s why the billionaires attack us.
:: Scrapping universal credit
:: Scrapping tuition fees
:: Extra 5,000 firefighters
:: More council houses being built and rent caps
:: Free dental check-ups
:: Free bus travel for under-25s
:: Free full-fibre broadband
:: Free TV licences for over-75s
:: Nationalisation of Royal Mail, energy, water, rail, bus networks and parts of BT
:: Raise corporation tax to 26% from April 2022 (from the current 19%)
:: Upgrade almost all homes to highest energy efficiency standards
:: Living wage of at least £10 an hour for workers aged 16 or over
:: Cut working week to 32 hours (four days) within a decade
:: Ban zero-hour contracts
:: Creating a national education service for life-long learning
:: Getting Brexit “sorted” within six months and having a second referendum
:: Freedom of movement would continue if Remain won but restrictions would be imposed if Leave won
:: Constructing up to 150,000 homes a year
There were several pledges on the environment within the manifesto, including building 7,000 new offshore wind turbines, 2,000 new onshore wind turbines, enough solar panels to cover 22,000 football pitches and new nuclear power needed for energy security.
The manifesto might run to 105 pages, and the costing document to 40 more, but the clear message Jeremy Corbyn wanted to get across was boiled down to a five word phrase: Labour is on your side.
He argued the Conservatives were owned by the very same ‘vested interests’ that a Labour government was intent on challenging through their radical manifesto.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Labour believe the way to get beyond the issue of Brexit is to recast the result of the referendum of 2016 as a howl of outrage demanding fundamental change.
Labour said it will introduce a windfall tax on oil companies to help cover costs of renewable energy, but did not say what the tax would be.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) was damning about Labour’s plan, saying state control will drag our economy down, rather than lift people up.
Carolyn Fairburn, CBI director general, said: “It’s the most vulnerable in society who will pay the price for this economic experiment.
Home Office minister Brandon Lewis said the manifesto showed Mr Corbyn had no plan for Brexit and would cost each taxpayer £2,400 a year.
Without a plan to get Brexit done he has no credibility on anything else, he said.
A Labour government would mean unlimited and uncontrolled immigration putting pressure on our public services and a reckless spending spree which would take a sledgehammer to the British economy and cost every taxpayer £2,400 a year.