Income Tax

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Wednesday 5th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

I will be brief. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green), I doubt that many of my constituents would find themselves in the position of having to pay a 50p tax rate. It is right that we should be discussing reversing this Government’s tax cut for millionaires.

The Government’s decision to cut the 50p tax rate handed a £3 billion tax cut to the richest 1% in this country, yet at the same time ordinary people are worse off, with families paying hundreds of pounds a year more in VAT, thanks to the Government’s decision to raise VAT to 20%. In addition, Tory cuts to tax credits have hit millions of working families. Figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies show that households will be nearly £1,000 a year worse off by the time of the next general election because of tax and benefit changes that have been made since 2010. We are most definitely not “all in this together”.

Like the constituents of my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali), people in my constituency are struggling with the cost of living, with wages flatlining and the prices of food, fuel and energy increasing all the time. They are told that the economy is in recovery, but they are not feeling it. As winter approaches, many families in my constituency will face a stark choice between heating and eating, for they cannot afford to do both.

It is absolutely right and proper for the 50p tax rate to be brought back for high earners. It is simply not right for them to be given tax cuts while the poor and the vulnerable bear the brunt of this Government’s austerity programme. This Government give tax cuts to millionaires while penalising the disabled for having an extra bedroom in which to store their medical equipment. This Government give tax cuts to millionaires, yet deny NHS workers a below-inflation 1% pay rise. It is clear whose side this Government are on, and it is not the side of ordinary people. They have no sympathy for those who are struggling on low incomes, yet defend to the hilt the right of high earners not to pay their share. That is why we will reverse the £3 billion tax cut for the top 1% of earners, as part of our plan to balance the books in a fairer and more equal way.