A LABOUR government will invest billions in a green transition, Rachel Reeves has announced.

In her speech to the party conference in Brighton, the shadow Chancellor pledged an extra £28bn in capital investment to tackle climate change and vowed to become the country’s first “Green Chancellor”.

Ms Reeves also said her party would have a “laser focus” on improving the tax system in the country, arguing that firms making exorbitant profits face very little extra tax payments as a result.

She told delegates: “I can announce today Labour’s climate investment pledge, an additional £28 billion of capital investment in our country’s green transition for each and every year of this decade.

“I will be a responsible chancellor. I will be Britain’s first green chancellor.

“I will invest in good jobs in the green industries of the future; Giga-factories to build batteries for electric vehicles; a thriving hydrogen industry; offshore wind with turbines made in Britain; planting trees and building flood defences; keeping homes warm and getting energy bills down; good new jobs in communities throughout Britain.

“In other words: protecting and strengthening our everyday economy. And to make this a reality, to unlock that potential, and protect our planet for future generations.”

Ms Reeves said there had to be an investment in “insourcing” rather than outsourcing contracts, in order to rebuild the economy and create jobs in the UK.

She also set out the party’s position on taxation, explaining: "We will make the tax system fairer, ensuring that the burden isn’t just falling on the wages of working people, but that those at the top pay their fair share, too.   

“How can it possibly be right that a police constable on £27,000 should be taxed at 32 pence in the pound, but someone making many times more from buying and selling stocks and shares should pay just 20 pence in the pound?

“That will not stand with Labour. I pledge that as Chancellor I will not be balancing the books on the backs of working people.”

She said the party would “bring a laser focus to efficiency in our tax system” explaining that “every single tax break” would be looked at, and if it “doesn’t deliver for the taxpayer or the economy then we will scrap it”.

The charitable status that private schools have, giving them exemption from VAT and business rates, would be scrapped along with arrangements for “private equity bosses who strip the assets of British businesses”, who Ms Reeves said “pay a lower rate of tax on their bonuses than workers do on their wages.”

The shadow chancellor also announced her party would scrap business rates to support the high street, adding: “Every single high street business is a labour of love and a product of determination and enterprise that gives life to our everyday economy. 

They have faced huge adversity in the past year and many are still struggling right now, with a cliff-edge in rates relief coming up in March.  

“Four out of five retail businesses are warning they may have to close outlets if government doesn’t act.

“We are calling on the government to freeze business rates next year to increase the threshold for small business rates relief, giving small and medium sized businesses in all sectors a discount next year.”

She said the Government should “should increase the Digital Services Tax to 12% for the next year, to make sure online companies that have thrived during this pandemic are paying their fair share.”