LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Labor Party opened its annual conference on Sunday, with its leaders attacking the new Conservative Party-led government’s “immoral” tax cuts.
The event, which this year takes place in the northern city of Liverpool, began two days after the government led by new Prime Minister Liz Truss announced the elimination of the 45% tax rate for those with higher incomes and said they will continue forward with plans to drive growth.
The Labor Party has seized on the tax cut as a crucial issue for Britons who are suffering from the worst cost-of-living rise in decades. Labor leader Keir Starmer told his supporters that the Conservative Party had “shown its true colors” by offering tax cuts to top earners. “They make the rich richer and they don’t do anything for the workers,” he said upon arriving at the conference.
Andy Burnham, mayor of Manchester, one of the UK’s largest cities, called the policy “immoral”.
Labor suffered a crushing defeat in the last general election of 2019, when Jeremy Corbyn was their leader, and they are using this conference to reposition themselves as a credible government-in-waiting.
At the opening of the conference, party members observed a minute’s silence in memory of Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem, the first time it has been sung at the party conference, which has many members who would like to see the abolition of the monarchy.
Starmer said there was now “faith in a Labor government” among voters faced with rising energy costs, which have helped push inflation to 9.9%, while workers are getting only modest pay rises.
The Labor leader has promised to reverse the income tax cut for the wealthiest Britons and punish energy producers for the windfall profits they have received from higher energy prices. He also said his government would invest in green energy to speed up the transition from fossil fuels.
For her part, Labor Vice-President Angela Rayner accused the government of “lining the pockets of oil and gas executives, enriching bankers while families starve.”