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Labour urged to up tax to 50%

4801A former leader of the Labour Party in the UK believes that 50% should be the top rate of income tax.

Lord Kinnock said this would demonstrate the party’s “unerring” commitment to fairness.

The last Labour government raised the upper tax band from 40% to 50% in 2010 in response to the recession but the coalition has since cut it to 45%.

 

He said his party must be "fair at every possible level" and based on the principle that "the broadest backs bear the heaviest burden", as opposed to the coalition with wants to cut state spending back to a “rudimentary” level.

"What we have got is a country where the top rate of tax on people over £150,000 has been cut from a 50% rate to a 45% rate," he said.

"I am not saying they can pay for everything but... we should have a top rate of 50%. That is very clearly the Labour's party's unerring policy".

Official Labour Party policy is to re-introduce the 10p lower tax band scrapped by Gordon Brown in 2009 as one of a number of specific measures but it has made no commitment on the top rate of tax.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said that "cutting taxes at the top" showed that ministers were out of touch.

He contrasted this with Labour's plans to freeze energy prices and a tax on bankers' bonuses to fund youth employment and house building schemes, which he claimed were in tune with public concerns.

Lib Dem Treasury minister Danny Alexander said that wealthy people could contribute more in tax in future, and re-iterated his party's support for a "mansion" tax on properties worth more than £2m, but he said his party had ruled out raising the top rate of tax.

Some MPs have prevailed upon the Chancellor to drop the top rate to 40%, arguing that higher taxes damage the competitiveness of the country while failing to bring in significant revenues.

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