LABOUR'S manifesto seeks to dispel its image as a "tax and spend" party. The reality is quite the reverse, it says. There will be no return" to the "penal tax rates" that existed under both the Labour and Conservative governments in the 1970s.
A one-off windfall tax on the "excess profits" of the privatised utilities will fund an "ambitious programme" to help 250,000 people get back to work. To encourage employment, Labour has promised not to raise the basic or top rates of income tax throughout the next parliament. The party's long-term objective on income tax will be to lower the starting rate to 10 pin the pound.
An early Labour budget, within two months of the election, will begin reform of the economy and the welfare state to encourage young people and the long-term unemployed back to work.
A Labour government will match the Conservatives target of 2.5 per cent inflation, or less. Labour will work, for the first two years of government, within the spending limits currently set.
VAT on domestic fuel, brought in amid fierce opposition under the Conservatives, will be reduced from 8 per cent to 5 per cent.