Political

Chuka Umunna: Labour would not reintroduce 50p rate, even if back in power today

Even if Labour somehow ended up in power today, with a new Budget introduced by Prime Minister Ed Miliband straight away, Labour would not reintroduce the 50p rate.

So said Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna on the BBC last night. Speaking not about 2015 but about what Labour was do in “a Budget tomorrow” (and yesterday’s tomorrow is today’s today), he said Labour would not reintroduce the 50p rate:

Add that to the fact that for 12 years and 11 months out of 13 years in power Labour did not have a 50p rate, and all the sound and fury of their opposition to the cut from 50p to 45p sounds rather synthetic.

UPDATE: And we a squeeling handbrake u-turn, Chuka Umunna after the interview has backtracked.

UPDATE 2: But wait! The u-turn has been u-turned, as Sara Bedford reports with Ed Balls now refusing to say if he was Chancellor next week that he would reintroduce the 50p rate.

2 responses to “Chuka Umunna: Labour would not reintroduce 50p rate, even if back in power today”

  1. Also remember that Labour broke its 2005 manifesto promise that they would NOT raise the top rate of Income Tax. They did and as you rightly say it came in in April 2010. Labour are good at feigning fury.

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