McDonnell promises tax freeze for those earning below £80,000

He said only the one in 20 taxpayers, some 1.2m people, would be affected, with the biggest burden falling on the very top 1 per cent.

He said there would be “no stealth taxes” in the next parliament under Labour, with no rises in VAT, personal national insurance contributions (NICs) or income tax below £80,000.

He said his “personal tax guarantee" would protect 95 per cent of workers from increases.

The Tories said Labour was “going back to type - they want to tax aspiration".

The pledge opens up an awkward gap between UK Labour and Scottish Labour on tax policy.

Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale argued at the Holyrood election and in this year’s budget process that there should be a 1p tax increase on the basic 20p and higher 40p rates.

The additional 45p rate for those earning over £150,9000 should also be raised to 50p using newly devolved powers, she said.

Nicola Sturgeon rejected the argument, saying it would punish those on modest incomes.

Although Mr McDonnell’s full plan is expected to include tax hikes for very high earners, something Mr Sturgeon also rejected at Holyrood, his promise to shield basic and higher rate taxpayers puts him at variance with Ms Dugdale.

He said yesterday: “The assurance I'm giving all the way through is that middle and lower earners will not have their tax increased and there'll be no stealth taxes either."

HMRC figures show the top 5 per cent of earners pay almost 47 per cent of all UK income tax, and the top 1 per cent pay 27 per cent.

Mr McDonnell said he had no plans to change VAT on zero-rated items, other than putting VAT on private school fees.

He told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show: "Anyone earning below £80,000, we will be guaranteeing you will not have an increase in income tax or VAT or National Insurance contributions. For those above £80,000, we're asking them to pay a modest bit more.

“Why? To fund our public services."

Asked if he still wanted a 60 per cent rate for those earning more than £100,000, he said: “I don't want to pre-empt any decisions that will be made within the democratic process of the Labour Party. You will see it'll be a modest increase but it'll go ... to our education services, caring services and our NHS. They're desperately in need."

After being forced into a climbdown over an NIC rise just days after his first budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond is expected to dump the Tories 2015 manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, NICs or VAT until 2020, saying last month he wanted “more flexibility” on the issue.

Asked whether he and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would quit if Labour lost the election, Mr McDonnell said: "We are not contemplating any loss. We are going to win this election."

The Tories also criticised Mr McDonnell for suggesting his economic policy would be influenced by Karl Marx, after he said: “I believe there’s a lot to learn from reading [Das] Kapital."

But he added: "I want to transform the system [not bring it down] - that's where Marx got it wrong, we know that."

Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said: "Jeremy Corbyn will have to raise taxes as his nonsensical economic ideas don't add up and he'll make a mess of Brexit negotiations."

LibDem Alistair Carmichael added: "John McDonnell seems to think it's 1917, not 2017. But the Marxism we're seeing in the Labour Party right now has more in common with Groucho than Karl.”

Mr McDonnell later refused to say how much his tax policy would raise, saying people would be "pleasantly surprised about the modesty" of the rate, adding the "1 per cent at the top" would be affected most.

Mr Corbyn also insisted Labour was “fighting to win” the General Election as he too refused to say if he would stand down if the party lost to Theresa May's Tories.

“We'll see what the result is,” he told Sky News.

Pressed on his own future, Mr Corbyn said: "I'm not answering any of those questions because we are fighting to win this election to get a Labour government that will deliver for the people of this country the kind of jobs, industries and services that they deserve."

Meanwhile the Tories attacked Mr Corbyn over security after it emerged he called the military drones of the kind used against terrorists “an obscenity” and demanded they be scrapped.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd seized on the 2013 comments, saying drones were “a key weapon in our battle against radical extremists”.

Labour will today promise to ban junk food adverts on TV before the 9pm watershed, cutting children's exposure to them by 82 per cent, to help tackle childhood obesity.