Labour’s Wes Streeting refuses to rule out council tax rises and revaluation under Keir Starmer government as Tories claim party is also quietly admitting it will need more public money for the NHS as well
A senior Work frontbencher today refused to rule out the party raising and revaluing council tax rates if it wins the election election.
Wes Straating was grilled about Labour’s tax plans regarding homes and the NHS in a round of media interviews this morning.
And the shadow health secretary will not confirm that the party would deliver on the Conservative manifesto promise to leave council tax bands where they are now – at a level set more than three decades ago.
The Conservatives also suggested he supported tax increases to fund NHS improvements. Mr Streeting was questioned about a claim by Nuffield Truss, reported by the Observer, that Labor and Tory manifesto plans for the health service would leave it worse off than in the austerity years of the past decade.
He told Sky NewsTrevor Phillip: ‘Where I disagree with The Nuffield Trust is the assumption they are making that this manifesto is the aggregate of all future budgets and any future expenditure statements. That’s just wrong. That’s not how election campaigns work.’
A Conservative spokesman said: ‘After a three-day conspiracy of silence, Wes Streeting has finally said what we all know: Labour’s manifesto is just a window dressing for the election campaign and they plan to spend and tax more than they tell the government. public.’
Wes Streeting was asked in a round of media interviews this morning about Labour’s tax plans on homes and the NHS.
Last week Rishi Sunak unveiled the Tory manifesto, which includes the Family Home Tax Guarantee, which promises no increase in stamp duty or capital gains tax on the family home, and no new council tax bands or revaluations.
However, critics have pointed out that the current eight-band system was introduced in 1991 and has not taken into account the huge house price increases since then.
They argue that the current system is overly biased in favor of people in larger, more expensive homes, who pay a smaller proportion of their property value in council tax than people in smaller, cheaper homes.
Pressed over whether a reappraisal could happen on Sunday under a Labor government. With Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Streeting reiterated the party’s line: ‘We don’t want the tax burden on working people to increase…’
“None of these commitments in our manifesto require an increase in council tax or an increase in fuel duty or any of the other taxes that the Tories claim they want to increase.”
Mr Streeting also urged trainee doctors to call off their strike, saying he is ‘beyond furious’ that the dispute has not yet been resolved.
He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: ‘I don’t think anything can be achieved by strikes in the election campaign. All we will see is more untold misery being inflicted on patients who have their appointments and procedures postponed, as well as on doctors in training who will have to pay out of pocket.”
He continued: ‘If there is a Labor government on July 5, I will call them on day one and ask the department to urgently initiate talks…
“I’m beyond furious that this is still happening.”
But he said there is ‘no money’ to give trainee doctors a 35 per cent pay rise.
