Lisa Nandy Condemns Benefits Freeze and Thatcherism in New Labour

Lisa Nandy at the Centre Point homelessness charity in London

Morning Star, London

LISA NANDY has vowed to reverse Tory cuts to benefits if she succeeds Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and also took aim at Thatcherite policies in the Blair and Brown years.

During her speech to the Centre Point homelessness charity in London today, the Wigan MP said that she would seek to design a “progressive tax system” that deducts more from those at the top.

She said this would be done by raising corporation and capital gains tax to the basic rate of income tax – currently 20 per cent.

“It cannot be right that the poorest can find themselves paying the highest marginal effective rate of tax – that bakers’ bonuses are taxed more than bankers’,” Ms Nandy added.

She was referring to Greggs bakery workers who received a £300 bonus this month – but it has since emerged that those receiving any benefits could keep as little as £75 due to the bonus tipping them over the £12,500-a-year earnings threshold.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Corbyn told MPs that the bonus deduction shows “the government is punishing, not supporting people.”

Ms Nandy also condemned former Labour PMs Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for allowing Thatcher’s principles to continue.

On the last Labour government, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today that their minimum wage was a “game-changer” but added that the “consensus Thatcher built lasted all the way through the New Labour years.”

Ms Nandy has become the second candidate, after Sir Keir Starmer, to make it onto the final ballot in the Labour leadership contest after picking up a nomination from Chinese For Labour, and endorsements from the NUM and GMB unions.