Shadow health secretary says Conservative economic failures mean Labour has few appealing optionsSign up for Election Edition, our UK election newsletterShadow health secretary Wes Streeting has been pushed during the media round on the funding of Labour’s manifesto pledges. Labour have argued that the promises are fully costed and that there will be no tax rises for “working people”. The Conservatives have described the manifesto as a “tax trap”. Both parties are committed to the freezing of income tax thresholds over the next few years.Streeting told viewers of Sky News that the party had made hard choices because if it got into power it would inherit public finances in a parlous state because of “the recklessness of the Conservative’s economic policies”. He continued:We’ve spelled out fairer ways of funding those choices than the Conservatives, who’ve always sought to pick the pockets of working people as their first and last resort. And sothings like clamping down on tax avoidance, making sure that we close the remaining non-dom loopholes, a real windfall tax on the big oil and gas companies. When it comes to the burden of taxation on working people. We’ve been very clear we’re not going up top income tax, national insurance or VAT.Rachel Reeves has been clear now as shadow chancellor. She wants to bring down the burden of taxation on working people. We’ve had to be careful about the promises we make in our manifesto. I want people to know that these are promises we can keep, and that the country can afford.Of course we’d like to go further. But we’ve been very disciplined in terms of what goes into this manifesto so that people know it’s real change. It’s change they can believe in.I know there are millions of people out there at the moment who are undecided about how to vote at this general election, who are deeply cynical about politics and politicians.And so what we’re trying to do as well as rebuilding our economy and rebuilding our public services, we are going to have to work very hard to rebuild trust in politics itself.Keir Starmer has faced questions over the cost of the Labour manifestoAngela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt clashed again in a heated seven-way TV debateGrenfell and other bereaved families demand next PM act on public inquiriesFemale UK election candidates report increased abuseThe UK has seen an “explosion” in insecure work since 2011, says TUC report Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jun/14/general-election-2024-labour-manifesto-conservatives-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-uk-politics
Author : Martin Belam
Publish date : 2024-06-14 10:04:19
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