Keir Starmer vows to reinstate top rate of income tax to fund public services
Keir Starmer is seeking to draw new battle lines with Liz Truss by vowing to reinstate the top rate of income tax and ploughing the ensuing billions into the NHS and other public services.
The Guardian understands that Labour will set out in more detail on Monday how it would use the money raised from reversing the abolition of the 45p rate outlined by the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, in Friday’s mini-budget.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will argue at the party’s conference that investing in public services such as the NHS, schools and childcare is the only way to build the foundations of a strong economy – which she warns Truss is putting at risk.
She told the Guardian: “Liz Truss and I are not that different in ages. We both went to our local state schools in the 80s and 90s. But the conclusions we’ve come to after that experience seem to be a world apart. You can’t build a strong economy without strong public services.”
On the first day of the Liverpool conference, Starmer said it was “hugely divisive” of ministers to hand out a tax cut to people who were paid more than £150,000, as he pledged to reverse the scrapping of the additional rate on the highest earners. It could raise at least £2bn, and possibly much more, for public spending.
The Labour leader said he would not reverse the cut to the basic tax rate from 20% to 19%, as the party wanted to “reduce the tax burden on working people”. But this put him on a collision course with Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who said Labour should oppose both tax moves.
Burnham said Labour should go further and reverse the cut in the basic rate as well, because “I don’t think it’s the most targeted way” of helping those struggling most during the cost of
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