Keir’s ‘tax trap’ plan for Britain: Starmer unveils Labour’s £8.5BILLION of tax rises – hitting oil and gas industry and VAT on private school fees – but Tories warn he’s plotting even BIGGER secret raids on council tax, pensions and fuel

Keir Starmer today unveiled Labour’s manifesto with £8.5 billion in tax rises – as the Tories warned he is plotting even bigger raids.

Sir Keir praised the key document at a glitzy event in Manchester, insisting it showed his party had left the “dead-end gesture politics” behind Jeremy Corbyn and was ready for government.

With polls putting the party on track for a landslide, the content was heralded as ‘safety first’ – including a NHS revision, ‘nanny state’ turns to junk food and a Net Zero campaign.

But details show Labor is proposing to raise £8.5 billion in extra revenue, from policies such as VAT on private school fees, ending ‘Non Dom’ status, increasing stamp duty on foreign buyers and a bigger windfall tax on the oil and gas industry. .

The Tories said Labour’s own plans implied the burden would rise to 37.4 percent of GDP – the highest in history.

However, they also warned of a ‘tax trap’, pointing out that this is not the case in the document ruling out revaluation of municipal taxes, capital gains tax raids or fuel excise tax relief.

After seeing the start of his speech disrupted by a climate protester, Sir Keir said it was now ‘time to change Britain’.

He stressed that Britain is “still a great country” but that the country lacks a “government that can match the ambition of working people.”

Sir Keir tried to turn his dull image into a virtue as he lashed out at him Nigel Farage‘s brand of politics. “If you want politics as pantomime, I hear Clacton is nice at this time of year.”

When asked why there is no policy that has not been announced before, he said: “I am running to become prime minister, not as a candidate to run the circus.”

The Work The leader was riding high after being seen coming out on top in a crucial TV showdown with Rishi Sunak last night.

Unlike Tuesday’s Tory offering – which contained no photos at all – Labour’s manifesto includes 33 images of the leader.

Keir Starmer is today facing fresh warnings of a Labor tax raid after launching his election manifesto

Sir Keir praised the key document at a glitzy event in Manchester

Sir Keir stressed that Britain is ‘still a great country’ but lacks a ‘government that can match the ambition of working people’

A woman interrupted Sir Keir as he started to explain the plans and forced him to stop talking as she shouted about climate issues

Sir Keir was embraced by Labor figures including Sadiq Khan after his speech today

Sir Keir was introduced by his deputy Angela Rayner, with whom he has had a tense relationship at times

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves was in the audience for the key election moment

Sir Keir was introduced by his deputy Angela Rayner and Icelandic CEO Richard Walker – who until recently tried to become a Tory MP.

Sir Keir said: ‘Creating wealth is our first priority. Growth is our core business – the goal and means of national renewal. ‘The mandate we seek in these elections is for economic growth. This changed PvdA has a growth plan. We are pro-business and pro-workers, the party of wealth creation.’

Labor has already ruled out increasing income tax, national insurance or national insurance rates VAT.

The increases the country has openly committed to include imposing VAT on private school fees, abolishing non-domestic tax status and closing “loopholes” in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the blueprint does not do that including the £2,094 in tax increases they will need to meet their £38.5 billion unfunded spending obligations.”

“The important thing is not what is in the Labor manifesto, but what they have left out,” he said.

“They refuse to rule out taxing your job, your home, your pension, your car, your business and think they can get away with it without anyone holding them accountable.

‘Don’t be under any illusions, from cradle to grave you will pay more taxes under Labor.’

The party’s first steps also include a pledge to cut NHS waiting lists by 40,000 new appointments a week, setting up a Border Security Command, setting up GB Energy, cracking down on anti-social behavior and hiring 6,500 teachers.

The manifesto commits to reforming planning rules and building 1.5 million new homes.

There are moves to review workers’ rights and a promise to devolve decision-making to Westminster.

On foreign policy, Labor has said it will back Ukraine against Russia and support the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a Middle East peace process.

The party has also pledged to aim to spend 2.5 percent of GDP on defense, without saying when that will happen.

In his foreword to the document, Sir Keir said: ‘We must decisively turn the page on the Conservative ideas that have caused the chaos.

‘The world has become increasingly unstable, with a major war in Europe for the first time in a generation and increasing threats to the living standards of working people.

“This ‘age of insecurity’ requires the government to act and not stand aside.”

Sir Keir said Labour’s task ‘will not be easy’.

‘Not just because there is no quick fix for the mess the Conservatives have created. But also because their failures have undermined our collective confidence that Britain can still achieve great things.”

Sir Keir rejected that defeatism, saying: ‘We are still a great nation. We can still achieve great things. What is lacking as a government that can match the ambition that working people have for their families and communities with a credible long-term plan.’

The Labor leader, who took over from Jeremy Corbyn after the party’s 2019 election battle, said: “The defining aim of my Labor leadership has been to drag my party away from the blind alley of gesture politics and its to return to politics. service of working people.

Sir Keir posed for photographs this morning with copies of the party’s election manifesto

‘I changed parties. Now I want the opportunity to bring that change to the country.”

In his launch speech, Sir Keir said Labor had set out a ‘manifesto for wealth creation, a plan to change Britain’, adding: ‘Today we can lay a new foundation for stability and on that foundation we can start rebuilding Britain.’

Sir Keir was roasted during the Sky News program in Grimsby last night on claims he will raise taxes, and whether he can be ‘trusted’ after previously backing Jeremy Corbyn. He was also scolded for his ‘robotic’ manner.

However, YouGov research found viewers outperformed the Prime Minister by 64 to 36 per cent – after Mr Sunak endured an even more brutal 45-minute mauling.

The prime minister was repeatedly abused for leaving D-Day commemorations early and faced derisive laughter when he tried to defend the government. Tories‘ report on issues such as immigration.