Jeremy Corbyn facing backbench rebellion over Labour backing tax cuts for the rich
3 min read
Jeremy Corbyn is facing a major backbench rebellion over Labour's support for the Government's plans to hand a tax cut to the well-off.
PoliticsHome has been told that at least a dozen Labour MPs could vote against the measure in the Commons tomorrow.
In his Budget on Monday, Philip Hammond unveiled plans to raise the salary threshold at which people start paying tax to £12,500 from next April.
More controversially, he also announced that the 40p rate of income tax will start to kick in at £50,000 at the same time, handing a tax cut to millions of higher earners.
The Resolution Foundation think tank said the move - which is estimated will cost the Treasury £2.8bn - would benefit the richest tenth of households by 14 times as much as the poorest.
In a move which angered many Labour figures, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the party would not oppose the policy, arguing that "low and middle earners" deserved to keep more of their wages.
If the policy does go to a vote in Parliament, Labour MPs will be whipped to abstain on the measure.
But Wigan MP Lisa Nandy said the tax cut for higher earners was "immoral" and said she and many of her colleagues would defy the Labour leadership to vote against it.
She told Sky News: "In terms of how we will vote, there is a debate going on in the Labour party at the moment because the vote that will be put to us is about the tax changes as a whole and obviously there is some marginal benefit for some people towards the bottom.
"My view is that this is now so abhorrent, to be spending so much money on people who need it the least and so little on people who need it the most, and such a disastrous economic approach too.
"My own view is that we ought to oppose this on behalf of those people who don't have a voice at the moment.
"I think the official Labour position at the moment is to abstain, but I think you’ll find there are a number of people who feel that this is just too unacceptable because in the end we need to go back to our constituencies, sit in our surgeries and look people in the eye and explain why we’ve done what we did."
Senior Labour MPs Yvette Cooper and David Lammy have also hit out at their own frontbench's position, while former Cabinet member Andy Burnham - now mayor of Greater Manchester - said it had sent "a shiver up his spine" when he heard about it.
However, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn today defended Labour's position, while insisting that if they get into power, only those earning more than £80,000 a year will pay more income tax.
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