JEREMY Corbyn will today launch Labour’s “manifesto of hope,” pitching the people versus the privileged; the many against the few.
But the eve of the Opposition’s set-piece election event has been overshadowed by an inadvertent slip by Boris Johnson, pre-announcing the Conservatives’ own flagship campaign announcement: lifting more than two million low-paid workers out of paying National Insurance Contributions[NICs]; money used to fund the NHS, welfare and state pension.
This morning in Birmingham, the Labour leader will set out his party’s prospectus for government, “It’s Time for Real Change,” describing it as the “most radical and ambitious plan to transform our country in decades”.
Included in its pages will be commitments to:
*broker a new Brexit deal with Brussels within three months of winning the election, and then within another three months put the deal to the public in a referendum along with the option to Remain;
*outspend the Tories on the NHS by providing an extra £26 billion to rebuild "crumbling" hospitals and improve patient care;
*provide free dental check-ups and prescriptions for everyone in England;
*raise taxes on the top five per cent of earners to help fund public services;
*increase the minimum wage to £10-an-hour for everyone, including under-18s;
*invest more than £70bn in Scotland and oppose a second independence referendum – although Mr Corbyn has failed to rule out facilitating one in the latter part of the next Parliament;
*renationalise the railways, energy supply and Royal Mail;
*provide every home and business with free full-fibre internet by 2030 as Labour brings part of BT into public ownership to create a nationalised "British broadband service";
*continue with freedom of movement if Remain won another referendum but impose restrictions if Leave won again;
*south of the border cut class sizes for five to seven-year-olds, introduce 30 hours of free childcare for all two to four-year-olds and open new Sure Start children's centres;
*end the housing crisis by building 150,000 council and social homes a year in England and
*as part of its "green industrial revolution," pledge 320,000 climate apprenticeships and billions in spending to upgrade every home to be energy efficient.
Mr Corbyn will say: “This is a manifesto of hope. A manifesto that will bring real change. A manifesto full of popular policies that the political establishment has blocked for a generation. Those policies are fully costed, with no tax increases for 95 per cent of taxpayers.”
He will claim that over the next three weeks the most powerful people in Britain and their supporters are going to say everything in Labour’s manifesto is impossible because they want to maintain the rigged system that works in their favour.
“If your wages never seem to go up and your bills never seem to go down, if your public services only seem to get worse, despite the heroic efforts of those who work in them, then it’s not working for you.”
Insisting not all politicians are the same, the Labour leader will declare: “This party, this movement, this manifesto is different. Labour is on your side. And there could scarcely be a clearer demonstration of that than the furious reaction of the rich and powerful.”
Mr Corbyn will warn that the privileged will “throw everything they’ve got at us because they’re scared of real change”.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister appeared to blurt out the Tory plan on NICs ahead of his party's manifesto launch - expected this weekend - during a campaign visit to an engineering company on Teesside.
Asked by a worker if his plan to lower taxes was for "people like you or people like us," Mr Johnson replied: “I mean low tax for...working people.”
He later suggested the move would put "around £500" in people's pockets, explaining the intention was to raise the threshold to £9,500 in the first budget of the new Parliament at a cost of £2.1bn while increasing it to £12,500 would be done "over time".
Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated the cost of giving people the full £450-a-year benefit would be £10bn.
"That's a big tax cut," declared the think-tank’s director, explaining: “The initial change would save £70 to £80 a year. You'd need to go the whole way to save £450."
Labour’s John McDonnell was dismissive, saying: “Even after ten years of cruel cuts and despite creaking public services the Tories still think the answer to the challenges of our time is a tax cut of £1.64 a week with those on Universal Credit getting about 60p.”
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