Jeremy Corbyn promises to rob from the rich as he calls for a maximum wage cap
JEREMY Corbyn stunned Labour MPs today by pushing for a Lenin-style cap on higher wages on the day of his “populist relaunch”.
In a morning of TV chaos the under-fire Labour leader also ditched his promised u-turn on border control, saying there was “not a sea-change at all’ in his position on immigration.
During his round of interviews on the BBC and Sky news, Mr Corbyn said a "high earnings cap" was something the Labour party were "looking at".
"In the first three days of this year, many top executives have already earned what the rest are going to earn in a whole year,"; he said.
He indicated that it would be "somewhat higher" than the £138,000 that he was earning at the moment.
He went on: "I think the salaries paid to some footballers are simply ridiculous. Why would somebody need to earn more than £50 million a year? [Arsenal manager] Arsene Wenger is a man who is an accountant at heart and I think he'd probably... like there to be a maximum wage cap on the whole of the Premier League."
Probed on the details of his new policy, Mr Corbyn said: "I can't put a figure on it and I don't want to".
He added: “What I am going to say is that we are looking at this issue of the disparity of pay within big companies and organisations and do something to try and close that gap."
One Labour MP went as far as to brand the leader “a Trotskyite Trump” and some of Mr Corbyn’s closest aides were surprised by the announcement that came on a day pencilled in to focus on Brexit.
Labour MP Emma Reynolds also said this morning she wasn't behind the idea.
"I'm not sure if I would support that. I would like to see the details," she said. "I... instinctively, don't think that's probably the best way to go."
And Labour MP John Mann said a wage cap of £100,000 per year should apply to the Labour party too - that would be a £38,000 cut for the leader.
Economists dismissed the on the hoof policy - that was enforced in Cuba and Venezuela - as "totally bananas", claiming the policy would destroy the British economy.
Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “The Labour leader's suggestion to introduce a maximum wage cap to tackle inequality is dangerous and, for all intents and purposes, a 100% income tax rate.”
He added: "We want more millionaires and billionaires who can contribute to our economy in this way, not fewer."
Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, said: “a bananas” maximum salary cap "would hurt British firms and ultimately ordinary British workers."
The top wonk added: “If you rely on the NHS or other public services, this is bad news: tax revenues will fall as these highly-paid executives move abroad.
“If we want Britain to boom, we need to let business hire who it wants and pay them what it wants."
Even Mr Corbyn's ex-economic guru said the policy was "totally idiotic unworkable idea."
Former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee David Blanchflower added that he would have told Mr Corbyn so "if I was still an adviser."
In further chaos last night a Labour source said the party is designing policies for the next election that “would reduce numbers” of migrant workers coming to Britain from the EU.
But speaking to the BBC on Tuesday morning, Mr Corbyn said he did not believe that migration to the UK was too high.
However, on TV on this morning Mr Corbyn claimed there was “not a sea change” in his view about migration.
"Migrant workers who have come from the EU have made and will always make an enormous contribution to our society," he said. "We should value them and recognise that as an ageing society, we need those people."
At the risk of frustrating hundreds of thousands of commuters affected by chaotic strike action, the Labour leader also used the interview to say that he would Southern Rail strikers on the picket line.
"Yes I would... The government seem to be more interested in protecting Southern Rail, despite its appalling service," he said.
"I want that brought back into public ownership."
On a separate interview this morning with Good Morning Britain, the Labour leader was given an Arsenal shirt with "No 10" on the back as a gift from fellow football fan, Piers Morgan.
“You might never get there but at least you can have the shirt,” Mr Morgan joked.
"How do you know?" Mr Corbyn replied.
Dominic Raab MP, member of the Exiting the European Union Select Committee, said that Mr Corbyn's "chaotic relaunch" hadn't made it past breakfast time.
"Given that Corbyn has previously said that he’s not concerned about the number of people coming to this country, it is clear that Labour simply will not get control of immigration," he said.
"The question is, do Labour believe that Brexit must mean taking control of immigration from Europe or not? Their answer is no."