Labour should stayed committed to 50p tax rate, say LabourList readers

Last week Harriet Harman said that Labour were “sympathetic” to the government’s plan to reduce the welfare cap from £26,000 to £23,000.

However, Sadiq Khan – London Mayoral candidate – said that he opposed this policy in an article for LabourList. It’s likely that he won’t be the only person in the Parliamentary Labour Party who feels this way. We asked readers what they thought: should Labour oppose the government’s plan to reduce the welfare cap from £26,000 to £23,000 per year?

A large majority of people – 71% – say that Labour should oppose the cap. Whereas 19% think that they shouldn’t. 8% aren’t sure, responding with maybe. While only 2% say they ‘don’t know’. This suggests that among LabourList readers there is a strong feeling that Labour should oppose the government’s policy.

Yvette Cooper, one of the five people in the running to be Labour’s next leader,  recently said that she thinks Labour were “too squeamish” when it came to talking about immigration at the last election.

The vote is split on this issue. 48% said they didn’t think Labour were too squeamish while 46% agree with Cooper’s comment. Those who chose ‘yes’ could have done so for various reasons. Although this suggests  they think Labour should have been more up-front on this issue, it make clear whether they agreed or disagreed with Labour’s immigration policies. 7% said they didn’t know.

One of Labour’s proposals ahead of the last general election was that they would increase the top rate of tax from 45p back to 50p.

3 of the leadership candidates have expressed their views on this topic – Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper have come out in favour taking the top rate of tax back to this level, while Liz Kendall said Labour shouldn’t support it on a long term basis.

We asked our readers their views. An overwhelming 83% said they think Labour should remain committed to raising the top rate of tax to 50p, while only 11% said that they shouldn’t. 5% weren’t so sure and opted for ‘maybe’, while 1% said they didn’t know.

1,543 people voted in this week’s survey. Thankyou to everyone who took part.