"Scottish Labour’s manifesto launch setting out plans to heavily tax the rich has been overshadowed by a poll suggesting Labour could come third behind the Tories in Scottish elections for the first time in more than a century.
Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, said her party’s plan to raise income tax to 50p for the wealthiest earners represented the “big choice” facing voters on 5 May, and she claimed the Scottish National party would need to make cuts of £3bn.
She said putting up taxes to fully fund public services and offset deep cuts in Treasury funding was an honest solution to the central challenge facing Holyrood’s parties.
“One promise underpins all others in Labour’s manifesto,” she said. “[It] simply isn’t credible to promise more spending on the NHS, on schools, on childcare, while accepting billions of pounds more of austerity.”
Launching the manifesto, Dugdale said introducing a 50p top rate of tax from April 2017, alongside a 1p rise in rates for other bands, was essential to guarantee the higher investment needed in schools, hospitals and job creation.
Dugdale said Nicola Sturgeon’s far more modest proposed tax changes, which include a cash-terms cut in taxes for higher earners, would leave a substantial funding gap. The Institute for Public Policy Research has said Labour’s tax plans would raise £1.2bn for Holyrood by 2021, £900m more than the SNP plans.
Dugdale insisted that the tax plan was very popular. She cited a series of opinion polls showing more than 50% of Scots favoured a 50p top rate, and a BBC Scotland survey that she said showed her higher tax plan was the most popular policy of all those on offer."
Source: Scottish election poll puts Labour in third place behind Tories | Politics | The Guardian
Fecks sake - competition on who increases taxes most!!!
Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, said her party’s plan to raise income tax to 50p for the wealthiest earners represented the “big choice” facing voters on 5 May, and she claimed the Scottish National party would need to make cuts of £3bn.
She said putting up taxes to fully fund public services and offset deep cuts in Treasury funding was an honest solution to the central challenge facing Holyrood’s parties.
“One promise underpins all others in Labour’s manifesto,” she said. “[It] simply isn’t credible to promise more spending on the NHS, on schools, on childcare, while accepting billions of pounds more of austerity.”
Launching the manifesto, Dugdale said introducing a 50p top rate of tax from April 2017, alongside a 1p rise in rates for other bands, was essential to guarantee the higher investment needed in schools, hospitals and job creation.
Dugdale said Nicola Sturgeon’s far more modest proposed tax changes, which include a cash-terms cut in taxes for higher earners, would leave a substantial funding gap. The Institute for Public Policy Research has said Labour’s tax plans would raise £1.2bn for Holyrood by 2021, £900m more than the SNP plans.
Dugdale insisted that the tax plan was very popular. She cited a series of opinion polls showing more than 50% of Scots favoured a 50p top rate, and a BBC Scotland survey that she said showed her higher tax plan was the most popular policy of all those on offer."
Source: Scottish election poll puts Labour in third place behind Tories | Politics | The Guardian
Fecks sake - competition on who increases taxes most!!!
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