Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour plot to hit middle class with £1bn tax grab by forcing thousands more to pay death duties
JEREMY Corbyn’s Labour is plotting a £1billion middle-class tax grab by forcing thousands more families to pay death duties.
His Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell yesterday pledged to scrap a tax break which allows married couples to leave homes worth up to £850,000 to their children without a penny being due in inheritance tax.
Mr McDonnell vowed a Labour government led by Mr Corbyn would make sure all properties worth more than £425,000 would be hit with the 40 per cent charge.
And party sources hinted that he could cut the threshold by a further £100,000, dragging any family homes worth more than £325,000 into paying death taxes.
By 2021, married couples will be able to pool their inheritance tax free allowance up to a maximum of £1million under current Government plans.
But speaking as Labour faced a trouncing in today’s elections for local councillors and mayors, Mr McDonnell said: “We will be reversing those giveaways.”
A spokesman for the Shadow Chancellor said: “Labour do not support the inheritance tax giveaways announced by the Tories, as according to their own figures only 26,000 fewer estates would have no tax liability in 2020-21 at a cost of almost £1billion.”
Labour’s move would hit families in London particularly hard.
More than half the homes in the capital would be liable for the tax raid, with average prices there close to £600,000.
Labour said more details of its inheritance tax raid will be unveiled in its election manifesto later this month.
But the Tories have blasted Labour over its latest tax “bombshell”.
Housing minister Gavin Barwell said: “Not content with hiking taxes on the living, now Jeremy Corbyn wants to hit you harder when you die.
“This nonsensical and unfair idea would punish people who have worked hard, saved all their lives and want to pass on the family home to their children.”
Mr McDonnell yesterday lashed out at the BBC over its coverage of the election campaign so far.
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And he even branded broadcaster Justin Webb a “scallywag” for reporting a Tory dossier claiming Labour’s financial plans had a £45billion black hole.
Mr McDonnell claimed the Tories had peddled “absolute lies” and said he was “shocked the BBC has just taken a Conservative press release and has repeated it all morning”.
But the left-wing firebrand failed to explain how Labour would pay for £45billion of spending pledges.
Meanwhile, the Tories were last night tipped to pull off two astonishing victories in today’s local elections for new metropolitan mayors — as the working class deserts Labour.
Labour sources told The Sun they fear a huge shift by blue-collar Brits to the Conservatives in recent weeks will see Tory candidate Andy Street crowned Mayor of West Midlands.
And they said there was even a chance Tory councillor Ben Houchen could win the mayoral contest in Tees Valley, which includes Darlington, Redcar and Middlesbrough.
One Tory campaigning in the North East said last night: “I’ve never known a reaction on the doorstep like it. We really do have a chance.”
Victory in either contest would crown what is expected to be Labour’s biggest council election drubbing for 35 years.
There are eight mayoral contests in England today, with six in the newly combined “metro mayor” regions which also include Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, the West of England, and Cambridge and Peterborough.
A further 2,370 seats are up for grabs across 34 councils.
Pollsters believe Labour could lose 75 council seats in England while the Tories pick up 115.
Ukip could also go into freefall, with the anti-EU party expected to lose 105 of the near 139 seats it won in 2013, which come up for re-election today.
Labour is also tipped to suffer an incredible 130 losses in Wales as every council seat goes on the ballot paper.
Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary Barry Gardiner yesterday admitted the party feared the worst. He told the BBC: “One would expect we will see a decline in our numbers.”
Tory chairman Patrick McLoughlin urged Conservative supporters to get to the ballot box.
He said: “There is a clear choice — the competence of strong Conservative councils and elected mayors who will keep local taxes down with quality local services, versus the disarray of the rest.”
CHICKEN ROASTING
A REPORTER dressed as a chicken was grilled by cops twice yesterday as he tried to ambush MPs.
The Daily Mirror journalist was stopped at Buckingham Palace and London’s Institute of Engineering.
Former Sunday Mirror political editor Vincent Moss said: “In a time of terror attacks, this tired stunt wastes police time and is well past its sell-by date.”
