“Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners”

Facts

In Sir Keir Starmer’s 2020 Labour leadership manifesto he pledged to “Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners…”

Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners, reverse the Tories’ cuts in corporation tax and clamp down on tax avoidance, particularly of large corporations. No stepping back from our core principles. pic.twitter.com/lb02NcvyvO

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) February 12, 2020

A month earlier in a speech launching his leadership bid, Starmer said: “We have to be bold enough to say the free market model doesn’t work – the trickle down effect didn’t happen.”

Starmer has dropped this pledge and appears to have entirely reversed his economic thinking. “We’ve got the highest tax burden since the Second World War,” he told the BBC Today programme in May 2023. “I think the high tax, low growth model doesn’t work … My focus is on growing our economy.”

“I want lower taxation,” he told the Telegraph in June.

Verdict

Starmer abandoned his original pledge.

We emailed Sir Keir Starmer’s office and Labour offering them the chance to respond. We received no response.