LABOUR have been slammed on both sides of the political spectrum after they performed yet another U-turn, this time on the very first pledge Keir Starmer made as part of his bid to lead the party.
It comes after Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, insisted that the party had “no plans for a wealth tax” – despite both her and Starmer previously advocating for it.
Reeves also ruled out an increase to the top rate of income tax – something which was pledge number one in Starmer’s now-infamous “10 Pledges”.
Both policies were also promised in Scottish Labour's 2019 manifesto – though their 2021 manifesto only backed a tax rise on the highest incomes if necessary.
In September 2021, Starmer said: “Those that earn their income from things other than work, should pay their fair share … People who earn their money from property, dividends, stocks, shares – capital gains tax, these should all be looked at as a broader, fairer way of raising taxes.”
And that same month, Reeves told the Sunday Times: “I do think that people who get their income through wealth should have to pay more.”
But the two top Labour figures have since had a change of heart. It is Starmer’s 60th U-turn in three years, according to the Conservatives.
Speaking to the Telegraph newspaper, Reeves (above) was asked about her previous comments. She said: “The point I was making then, the Government said that they needed to raise £12 billion, and I said, well, why do you always have to come to working people and ask them to contribute more?
“I don’t have any spending plans that require us to raise £12 billion worth of money. So I don’t need a wealth tax or any of those things ... We have no plans for a wealth tax.”
UK Labour has previously refused to commit to “uncosted” policies such as scrapping the two-child cap on benefits, which it is estimated would cost around £1.3 billion per year.
Reeves also ruled out increasing tax on high-value properties or an increase to the capital gains tax.
Stewart Hosie, the SNP’s economy spokesperson at Westminster, said that the latest U-turn from Labour “underlines how indistinguishable they are from the Tories”.
The Dundee East MP went on: “In their desperate attempt to appeal to Tory voters, the Labour Party's tax policy now comes straight from the Tory manifesto.
“This latest capitulation now means the Labour Party and the Tories agree on taxation, the two-child cap, the rape clause, the bedroom tax, Brexit, the undemocratic House of Lords, and Scotland’s right to decide its own future “Voters across the UK will now rightly ask: what is the point of the Labour Party?
“At the next election, a vote for the SNP is a vote to deliver real change and real hope – and send a clear message to Keir Starmer (below) that being a Tory-lite tribute act will not cut it."
A pledge not to raise income tax was in the 2021 Tory manifesto, while the 2019 Scottish Labour manifesto called for “a fairer taxation system, asking for a little more from those with the broadest shoulders”.
Scottish Labour further pledged: “We will end the unfairness that sees income from wealth taxed at lower rates than income from work.”
The party's more recent 2021 manifesto backed "progressive taxation", saying changes to income tax should target "those earning over £100,000 a year".
The Scottish Greens' finance spokesperson, Ross Greer MSP, said: “If Keir Starmer told me the sky was blue, I’d have to go outside to check. Every day brings another broken promise."
He went on: "Labour say they won’t raise taxes on the rich because they have nothing they want to spend the money on, whilst simultaneously declaring that they would keep the two-child cap and rape clause in place because they can't afford to scrap them.
"That tells you everything you need to know about whose interests Starmer's Labour would govern in."
Even the Conservatives hit out at Starmer over the U-turn, with a spokesperson saying Labour was “yet again taking the British people for fools if she thinks they will believe this latest U-turn”.
Scottish Labour have been asked if they back Reeves, or stand by their 2021 manifesto.
Update: This article previously stated that Scottish Labour backed a wealth tax in their 2021 manifesto. It was in fact their 2019 manifesto.
