Candour deficit: why McDonnell's tax sums don't add up | Philip Inman

John McDonnell is caught in same trap as his Conservative counterpart, because only rise on basic rate will dent public deficit

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, needs only to cast his mind back to the March budget to judge the public's reaction to higher taxes. Philip Hammond's proposal to raise the rate of national insurance paid by the better off among the self-employed was widely condemned, not least by McDonnell himself.

Labour says its plan to raise "a bit more" income tax on those earning more than 80,000 overcomes the objections of all but an elite, who have fared well enough since the 2008 crash while ordinary working women and men have seen their incomes barely recover.