The Labour Party manifesto includes sweeping pledges on public spending, nationalising services and tax hikes for the rich. Speaking on Jeremy Corbyn’s nationalisation plans, specifically pension funds, businessman David Buik said it was a “knee-cap job”. TalkRADIO host Mike Graham asked: “One question I’ve been asked a lot by people since this particular proposal came out is what about pension funds?

“Because there’s an awful lot of pension funds that have got stock in these companies, isn’t there?”

Mr Buik replied: “With the funds managers in the pensions funds, they would be the largest shareholders.

“And the reason why they like these companies, these utility companies, is they pay very good dividends.

“And that gives them income for the foreseeable future to all those people who have retired and will be running their pension pots down during the course of the next 25 to 30 years while they’re in retirement.

“The fact that this is going to be what I would describe metaphorically as a ‘knee-cap job’.

“Where you will be given a bond almost certainly at the price you don’t want and in the form of an alternative investment that you don’t want, takes away clarity of choice.

“And choice is desperately important to everyone. You need the flexibility that if you want to come out of utilities and you want to go into healthcare or whatever it might be, that is taken away from you and that is not fair.”

At the manifesto launch event, Mr Corbyn promised a Labour Government would “transform” the UK.

The 105-page document has been dubbed the party’s most radical manifesto in decades and includes a windfall tax on oil firms and scrapping rises in the state pension age. Mr Corbyn accused “bankers, billionaires and the establishment” of wanting to thwart his plans, adding: “They don’t own the Labour Party. The people own the Labour Party.”

On Brexit, the Labour leader continued his ambiguous stance and in the questions after the launch, refused to state his position on whether he would campaign to Leave or Remain in a second EU referendum. But he did say what the party’s plans were, to renegotiate a new Brexit deal that incorporated a close relationship with the EU, which would then be put to a “legally binding” referendum.

Other changes pledged in the manifesto include lowering the voting age to 16, pledging £75billion to build 150,000 new council and social homes a year and introducing a “real living wage” of at least £10 an hour. Labour also plan to increase the NHS budget by 4.3 percent on average per year, a rise of 2.3 percent from the current Government.

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Mr Corbyn says his plans are “fully costed” and said Labour have calculated it will cost £82.9 billion.

He said it would be paid for by increases in corporation and income tax.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned the election plans would push the UK’s tax burden to its highest levels since the Second World War.

They said spending under Labour would increase by an additional £3.2 billion in real terms over four years, reaching £143.5 billion in 2023/24.

Labour plan to fund many of their pledges by hiking up taxes on the rich. They have said those earning more than £80,000 a year will be liable for higher income tax.

Instead of paying 40 percent tax, under Labour’s plans workers will have to fork out 45 percent of their wage. Under current tax brackets, only those who earn over £150,000 a year are taxed 45 percent.

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