Labour squeezes top 5% and British business with 'for the many' election manifesto

Labour will reintroduce the 50p income tax rate if they form the next government, the party announced in its general election manifesto on Tuesday 16 May.

Labour said the levy would be imposed on people who earn more than £123,000 ($159,000) per year, while those on more than £80,000 would face an income tax of 45p.

The return of the rate, scrapped in 2012 under the Conservative-led coalition government, is expected to raise an annual £6.4bn for the Treasury.

Corporation tax would also rise if Jeremy Corbyn enters Number 10.

The levy, which is due to drop to 17%, would increase to 27%. Labour claim the move will raise £19bn per year.

"Our revenue-raising plans ensure we can embark on this ambitious programme without jeopardising our national finances," Jeremy Corbyn told Labour supporters at the University of Bradford.

"We are asking the better-off and the big corporations to pay a little bit more – and, of course, to stop dodging their tax obligations in the first place.

"And in the longer term we look to a faster rate of growth, driven by increased private and public investment, to keep our accounts in shape. This is a programme of hope."

The tax hikes will help Labour pay for some of their flagship manifesto promises, including extending 30 hours-a-week of free childcare from working parents of over-twos to all families, which would cost £5bn per year.

The party also plans to take England's water firms into public ownership, but Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell admitted on Tuesday morning that Labour had not costed the pledge.

In total, Labour plan to spend £48.6bn per year by the end of the next parliament in 2022 and raise £48.6bn.

Elsewhere, the party has promised to raise the National Living Wage from £7.50 an hour to £10 per hour. But the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned that the policy, which businesses will pay for, could be a gamble.

"Ultimately, the most difficult thing about the setting of minimum wage policy is that we do not know the point at which the minimum wage significantly hits employment. But this should lead to a very simple conclusion: politicians should be particularly careful when setting its level," the organisation said.

"There is a good case for a minimum wage. But large and sudden increases create considerable risk that those who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the policy end up paying the cost of ill thought out proposals in higher unemployment or lower hours of work."

The unveiling of the manifesto comes just over three weeks before the general election on 8 June. Labour are up to 20 points behind the Conservatives in the opinion polls, with Theresa May heading for a landslide.

"Jeremy Corbyn's policies are a shambles and he simply doesn't have what it takes to lead our country through Brexit and beyond," said David Gauke, the Conservative chief Secretary to the Treasury.

"His economic ideas are nonsensical, his views on national security indefensible – and he'd make a total mess of the Brexit negotiations.

"And it's ordinary working people who will pay for the chaos of Corbyn. Jeremy Corbyn has made so many unfunded spending commitments it is clear that Labour would have to raise taxes dramatically because his sums don't add up.

"It is not worth taking the risk of Jeremy Corbyn ending up in Downing Street in 3 weeks' time. For strong, stable leadership through Brexit and beyond there is only one choice on 8 June: Theresa May and her Conservative team."