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Labour pledges to freeze Welsh income tax in bid to tackle cost of living

By Mark Mansfield
Labour First Minister of Wales Baroness Eluned Morgan during the Welsh Labour Senedd campaign launch. Photo credit: Ben Birchall/PA Wire

The Labour Party will freeze Welsh rates of income tax if the party leads the next Welsh government, it has been revealed.

The pledge forms the centrepiece of Welsh Labour’s manifesto, which is due to be launched on Monday in Swansea, ahead of May’s Senedd elections.

Labour has led Wales since the Senedd was first established as the National Assembly for Wales in 1999, but, if opinion polls are to be believed, the vote in May could see its electoral dominance brought to an end.

An MRP poll published last week, conducted by YouGov for ITV Cymru Wales, suggests Plaid Cymru remains on course to be the biggest party in May, with Reform the second largest and Labour third.

Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan, the current First Minister, is expected to say the income tax freeze was part of a focus on tackling the cost of living.

“Today, I make a clear promise to the people of Wales: in the next Senedd term, a Welsh Labour Government will not raise income tax,” Baroness Morgan will say.

“Fairness starts with understanding the pressure families face, but fairness also means action.

“This manifesto delivers real help with the cost of living.

“We will cap single bus fares at £2 across Wales, we will keep the £1 fares for young people and free travel for over-60s, and we will create 20,000 new childcare places, expanding provision from nine months old so families can work and get on.

“Because fairness means making everyday life that little bit easier.”

In addition to tackling the cost of living, Welsh Labour is pledging a £4 billion investment in the NHS, improving the environment by cleaning up rivers and cracking down on fly-tipping and ending homelessness.

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18 comments

Steve Thomas

Too little too late baroness. Welsh people wont fall for your false promises any more. You could hsve done any of this in the last twenty five years but didnt. And no mention of getting thd money Wastemonster owes us? Really

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Fi yn unig

Correct and she knows by now that her party are not even going to come second in this election. If she carries on trying to split the Plaid vote, she will deliver Cymru into the jaws of evil. Country before party Eluned? Stand candidates down and get with the programme.

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Felicity

I disagree. Most of the previous decades were dominated by Tory Westminster governments, with their austerity philosophy. Very little opportunity to shift the dial with an underfunded and outmoded Barnett formula. Mark Drakeford did his best to navigate through an unfair system.

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Felicity

An absurd sop to Reform and Tory voters. Income Tax should rise together with the re-banding of the highest rate. How on earth would a tax reduction help public services already on their knees.

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Adrian

The public sector is awash with money: the problem is that it’s inefficient, wasteful, and bereft of fiscal prudence.

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Leigh Richards

So Labour are pledging to improve the nhs and the environment, clean up rivers, crack down on fly-tipping and end homelessness - all of which Labour has had responsibility for in Wales for 27 years. Risible even by the standards of a politician who's clearly going thru the motions and knows her party faces annhilation on May 7th. As for the crude pitch to Reform voters and tory voters on tax whatever happened to Eluned Morgan's 'red welsh way'?

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Felicity

Yes, it's embarrassing. The true state of our ability to pay for services whilst demand keeps rising needs to be explained to the public. I understand the desire to promote hope and gain votes. Treating the public like children is not the way forward, although, to be fair, it has worked in the past.

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Adrian

They’ll be gone in about a month so it hardly matters.

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Felicity

Labour may be gone, but the challenges remain.

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Beardie

They won't be gone as Plaid will need the support of Labour for a working majority.

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Guess Again

And a free unicorn for every Labour voter

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Mawkernewek

So they have promised what not to do and otherwise said they'll keep doing what they've been doing. If they need to raise money then they'll have a choice between breaking their promises, or maybe use lack of money as an excuse.

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Cadwgan

But we do not pay a Welsh income tax! So as far as I am concerned she can double it. I am afraid it is Rachael that sets the income tax we pay not Eluned. Whilst you're at it can you sort out the backlog at Yspyty Maelor, after all you were health minister. It would be far better that Deeside industrial estate having 2 railway stations . Yes there is one there already and Skates wants a second and believes that despite the first one not being used a second one will be overflowing.

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Jessy Jones

Don't just freeze it, slash it. That way you'll attract entrepreneurs to Wales who will bring jobs with them.

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Felicity

The Thatcherite economic model is why we're in such a fix now.

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walesdad

Must be an election due?

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Peter J

Worth adding, plaid have also said they won't be increasing income tax. In fact, no major parties have said they will

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Undecided

Nor will anyone cut it either. Leads to the inevitable conclusion that devolved powers over income tax are pointless. Much easier to carry on blaming Westminster.

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Replying to Beardie Cancel

They won't be gone as Plaid will need the support of Labour for a working majority.

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