Labour to control price of FOOD and hike petrol prices in election manifesto, insiders say | Politics | News

The Labour leader will unveil his party’s policy programme later this week after the document was agreed by a gathering of senior party figures over the weekend. Unite union leader, one of the Labour power brokers, claimed the manifesto “gives hope to our kids, hope to people who are struggling, hope to workers”. 

Reports yesterday said policy in the Labour manifesto will include: 

• A ‘windfall tax’ on oil companies that could lead to hike in fuel duties;
• A ‘Right to Food Act’ designed to set prices for some foods that risks distorting the consumer market;
• Scrapping ‘opt-outs’ for the EU Working Time Directive to ban anyone from working for more than 48 hours a week;
• A new Cabinet Minister for Women and new laws to make misogyny a hate crime;
• Sweeping nationalisation programme of the railways, energy firms, water industry, Royal Mail and internet broadband providers;
• Effectively scrapping academies and free schools by putting them back under full local council control;
• A milkshake tax resulting from a massive expansion of the sugar levy.

Asked to confirm or deny whether the reported policies will be included in the final document, a Labour spokeswoman said: “Labour’s manifesto is a transformative document that will bring real change to the lives of the many, not the few.

“We will be launching it in full along with our ‘Grey Book’ of costings on Thursday. It will be worth the wait.”

McCluskey, who is Mr Corbyn’s biggest cheerleader in the trade union movement, described the forthcoming Labour manifesto as “a set of programmes for the twenty first century, a set of programmes that gives hope, a set of programmes that gives hope to our kids, hope to people who are struggling, hope to workers.”

He added: “You’ve only got to read what Labour is offering and I believe that once that happens, millions of people, ordinary working people will flock back to labour, come home to Labour. 

“Give your kids a future, give hope something that we can all grab hold of.

“A million homes, the abolition of zero hour contracts, a £10 minimum wage for young people, student debt being lifted off our youth, the offer goes on and on and on.”

Former Tory minister Mark Harper said: “If these latest policies do come to fruition in Labour’s manifesto, then they join state control of the internet, no plan to control immigration and another EU referendum from a party that didn’t like the result of the vote in 2016.

“The simple truth is that no matter what Labour’s manifesto looks like, only a Conservative Government will be able to get Brexit done and invest in our public services.”