Head of independent think-tank Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, spoke to ITV News following the release of the Labour Party’s election manifesto. Pledges included £75 billion to build 150,000 new council and social homes within five years, a £3 billion plan to offer adults in England free access to retraining and introducing a “real living wage” of at least £10 an hour. Mr Johnson was stunned at the “sheer scale of money being spent” and warned that the suggestions for how to fund it were “simply not credible”.

He told ITV: “It’s impossible to understate just how extraordinary this manifesto is in terms of the sheer scale of money being spent and raised through the tax system.

“Hundreds of billions of additional spending on investment.

“£80 billion plus per year on spending on day-to-day things, such as social security, spending on the NHS, student loans and so on.

“This is matched by, supposedly, an £80 billion increase in tax.”

He continued: “Now you can talk about tens or hundreds of billions, but take it from me, these are vast numbers.

“They’re enormous and colossal in the context of anything we’ve seen ever.

“The Labour manifesto suggests they want to raise £80 billion of tax revenue.

“They suggest that all of that will come from companies and people earning over £80,000 a year.”

Mr Johnson said: “That is simply not credible.

“You cannot raise that kind of money in our tax system without affecting individuals.

“Now obviously corporate tax affects individuals anyway so one has to pay that tax.”

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The IFS head added: “But if you’re looking at transforming society, which the Labour Party are absolutely upfront about doing, then you need to pay for it.

“And it can’t be someone else who pays for it

“We collectively will need to pay for it.”

Speaking at the manifesto launch, leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted Labour’s policies were fully costed and “popular”.

He told supporters there would be no increases in VAT, income tax or National Insurance for anyone earning less than £80,000, which means no tax increases for 95 percent of taxpayers.

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