The Green Party launched their manifesto today, pledging to introduce a fairer, greener tax system.
Of particular note are the following commitments:
- A wealth tax will be levied on individual taxpayers with assets above £10m at 1% and assets above £1bn at 2% annually. The Greens say fewer than 1% of households will pay this tax;
- On National Insurance contributions, the basic 8% rate would be charged on income above the Upper Earnings Limit. The party says the number of taxpayers affected would be less than 5 million and somebody earning £55,000 a year will pay £5.46 a week more in tax, or £283.74 a year;
- The party said they would “fully fund” every student and bring back maintenance grants;
- They also promised an extra £8bn of NHS expenditure in the first full year of the next Parliament and guaranteed access to an NHS dentist;
- Free personal care, along the lines of that available in Scotland, was promised as well as an extra £3bn for local authorities to provide high-quality children’s social care.
It terms of the wider political context, since Starmer has repositioned the Labour Party to the centre-left, it will be interesting to see how many 2019-Corbyn voters will be swayed by this manifesto to vote Green. If a substantial number do - and the Greens are confident they will perform well in areas such as Bristol - the Green party many become a more important national voice after the election.
What are the other parties up to?
24 hours on, the response to the Conservative manifesto has been flat. The Daily Mail said that it “lacked genuine radicalism” and The Times argued that Rishi Sunak “retreated into his inner accountant” rather than unleashing bold plans.
Tonight’s Sky event in Grimsby will be a litmus test of public opinion, not only on how the manifesto has landed, but also on whether Rishi’s ‘childhood hardship’ of not having Sky TV makes him relatable to voters as a ‘man of the people’. Sunak’s Paul Brand interview, the genesis of the D-Day gaffe, is broadcast immediately beforehand on ITV.
The Sky event is the latest hurdle for Keir Starmer to cross without dropping the Ming Vase ahead of tomorrow’s manifesto launch. Expect him to continue to criticise the Tory manifesto costings – although his argument that it is ‘akin to a Corbyn manifesto’ continues to jar given Starmer was in the meeting which signed off the 2019 Labour manifesto.
Elsewhere, Shadow Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle spoke at London Tech Week, promising that a Labour government will “unlock tech barriers to restart the engine of our economy”.
Kyle outlined Labour’s plan to supercharge the tech sector through boosting skills, improving research and building infrastructure. These new policies include:
- Removing the planning barriers for new data centres by updating the National Planning Policy Framework, and to update the regime for Nationally Significant Infrastructure to include vital economic infrastructure, such as major data centres;
- Reforming procurement to support UK startups and to open up the market to SMEs, who currently have to deal with multiple frameworks, each with a high barrier to entry. Labour said they will modernise procurement practices, including greater use of agile contracting methods and Risk-Reward contracts;
- Collaborating with the Good Things Foundation to support people on low incomes who are facing digital exclusion. Labour said they will donate suitable government devices, such as old laptops and smartphones, to people who cannot afford them, which would both achieve this aim and also go some way to tackling the climate crisis.
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