Jeremy Corbyn puts Labour spending plans under spotlight

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39254067

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said his party's spending plans are not complete, and appeared to contradict his business spokeswoman.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey discussed on Sunday's Andrew Marr Show how Labour would raise money to pay for £63bn of extra spending.

But Mr Corbyn told BBC Radio 4's Today: "I don't recognise the figure.

"Our programme is not complete... the figure that was used on the Marr programme is not one we recognise."

During her interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, Ms Long-Bailey was repeatedly challenged over how her party would raise the £63bn to pay for promised extra commitments if it got into government.

She said independent research showed that reverses to a series of tax cuts would raise £70bn by 2020: "We certainly wouldn't have made the decisions that this government has, for example, slashing taxes for the most wealthy in society - inheritance tax, capital gains tax, the bank levy, corporation tax."

During an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Corbyn rejected suggestions that Labour would spend £60-70bn more than the Conservatives paid for by taxation, stressing: "I don't recognise the £60bn figure.

"Corporation tax was 28%, it's now dropping and is due to drop to 17% - and indeed both the prime minister and chancellor threatened to drop it even further if Brexit didn't work and they would go down to an Irish figure of 12%.

"On a calculation of OBR figures, [it] shows that by 2022 £70bn will have been given to corporations and the very wealthiest by tax breaks and tax cuts - we would reverse the corporation tax cut, yes, and put corporation tax up."

Mr Corbyn said some of the cash would come from inheritance tax and the threshold for higher paid earners.

"But our programme is not complete - I fully concede that - it could not be, we're still working that out," he said. "So the figure you gave and was used on the Marr programme yesterday was not one we recognise."