Would you vote Labour if you earned over £80,000?

[NoMansGE]

When doing more research on labours tax policies DH and I noticed that this starts from salaries of £80,000. This would effect our household as that is DHs salary. We both agree with their campaign for 'no more billionaires'.. but we aren't billionaires. We are a normal family who live a comfortable but far from luxury lifestyle. We're both torn how to vote, as it would usually be labour.

It's more complicated than £80K = rich.

In JessWakefield86's example, what if one person was 55 and had worked in a professional job for several decades - why wouldn't they earn more than, say, a 25-year-old teacher?

Also the "average" income people keep spouting ranges from a school leaver to a pensioner.

Those who feel smugly safe that they don't earn £80K and can trumpet about voting Labour well, you can rest assured that when the Labour spending policies can't be financed only by those earning £80K and above, the roving eye of taxation will fall on the next wave of "rich bastards" who are sitting ducks on PAYE.

Why don’t any of the parties force corporations to pay their tax. They owe much more than you will get from the small amount of people who earn over 80k.

I would also like to see the government enact the law on ensuring companies pay their taxes in the U.K... you know, the one the rich tories are orchestrating brexit to avoid enacting.

I've never felt less welcome in my own country than I do now, thanks to Corbyn and his associates. And no one is bothered

@DuchessMustard it may not seem like it, but I am bothered. I have Jewish in-laws and Jewish friends, one of whom tells me that , like you, she has never felt so unsafe in this country.

But I think the Tories are utterly toxic for everyone. And Brexit is an utter disaster.

I respect your view - I know that if I were Jewish I would be very very conflicted ( I’ve seen anti-Semitic stuff shouted at my relatives in the street in other European countries).

Your post is really giving me pause.

Except that - in my electorate, if the good Labour MP ( an anti-Corbynite Blairite) doesn’t get re-elected, we’ll get a Tory. Of the red-trousered tosser type.

Oh I’ve always voted Labour in the past and ds is at a private school- I don’t feel at all hypocritical.
And what’s this about Doctors going part time to avoid paying higher tax? My dh works his bloody bollocks off, all the hours God sends. Part time would be a pipe dream for him!

I have no problem paying more in tax, but I'd like the government to tax people other than PAYE employees. I love my family but as hairdressers, taxi drivers, a plumber and a nail technician they all fiddle their books and pay less in tax than if they were employed. Let's not get started on the lack of tax on certain big businesses.

As another Jew, it's so heartening to see others care about this issue. I keep thinking of Niemöller’s words about not speaking up because it wasn't my group being targeted.

I do and I do

DH and I earn good salaries, and have always voted Labour, but we can't vote for them this time. We have Jewish friends who are devastated by the current wave of anti-semitism (as are we), and they've thrown women under the bus too

I shan't be voting for the Tories of course, and the Lib Dems are even worse on women, so I'll vote for whoever else is least worst.

Claim from upthread “If you earn £82,000 you will pay £8.30 more a month in tax.”

But also: Labour will give everyone superfast Broadband for free.

So the person earning £82,000 is paying £8.30 more in tax per month, but saving way more than that because they no longer have to pay for their internet.

the figures don’t add up.

if I vote it will be labour, as contrary to popular belief they're not at all racist to my people, whereas Conservatives are openly so.
I wouldn't have voted Tory anyway, though.

I think we are quite at risk in this country because so many people (in fact many people under a certain age) don’t understand, and haven’t witnessed, anti Semitism.

We are just getting to the point where if a black person says they have experience racism, or a woman says they have experienced sexism, we should accept their experiences and not question their interpretation or tell them they’re wrong.

So Why do we tell Jews experiencing anti semitism they’re wrong? That it’s “not really?” It’s such a backwards step

As for paying tax, at £82000 you'll pay £100 a year more. I don't think that's excessive, do you?

Do you think we’re dense enough to believe that that will be enough to pay for Labour’s trillion-pound spending plans and nationalisations?

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking Is it safe for Muslims? Or the poor?

Could you just state what you actually mean: you are happy to vote for an antisemitic party because you are not worried about what happens to Jews.

I never thought we would come to the point where we as Jews would point out glaring antisemitism in a party leader & the whole leadership & be told outright that (many) people simply don't care & that we should just shut up about it - and "leave if we don't like it".

I have been ignoring all of these threads because it's too viscerally upsetting to come face-to-face with the degree of indifference that a large proportion of the UK population have when faced with blatant hatred & hounding of Jews.

This one isn't doing me much good either, although it is very comforting to read the posts from the people who DO care.

Jewish Labour MPs, some of whom have been in the party for decades, have been deliberately driven out and have spoken out about the concerted abuse they have received, which is more or less explicitly endorsed by the leadership.

Corbyn has pretty much explicitly said that Jews are not British, that we are not welcome here & do not belong. His acolytes regularly refer to the blood libel, to imagery of Jews as face-sucking aliens or as money-grabbing hook-nosed puppetmasters. They call Jewish people 'Shylock' to their face - they deliberately quote Biblical verses that have historically been used to whip up anti-Jewish pogroms.

And people are still fine with it. Happy to ignore it. Some of them are, let's be honest, more than fine - quietly quite pleased to see those uppity Jews get what's coming to them.

@HavelockVetinari DH and I earn good salaries, and have always voted Labour, but we can't vote for them this time. We have Jewish friends who are devastated by the current wave of anti-semitism (as are we), and they've thrown women under the bus too sad

Thank you Havelock. You're right about the misogyny too.

It's so odd. When I was at school the Holocaust was a Big Thing. Now I suppose for young people it's faded from prominence - it's irrelevant to them. Jewish people are also not particularly visible in the UK so not an obvious "cause". It is strange, though, how so many of the hardcore young can't seem to distinguish between Jewish state/Government/religion and just support a blanket nastiness to anyone Jewish. Beats me.

I had a look at my salary from my first graduate job in 1995, and how much tax and NI I paid on it, and at what those figures would be today adjusted for inflation. And then I looked at how much tax I’d pay on it today.

I paid £1,900 more tax a year, on an average graduate starting salary, than I would now ( in today’s money). And that was after 16 years of conservatives. We really don’t pay much tax now.

On Labour’s tax calculator, I’d have to earn £111,000 before my tax bill would go up by £1,900.

So yes, I’d vote Labour.

I don't earn that much but my husband does and yes we bloody would. I like being able to go to the doctor. I like not seeing homeless people on the streets. I enjoy my children having an education and playground equipment to play on. I love libraries. I like people who are not born into money being able to enjoy and create art, and go to university.

We choose to live together in societies. Civilisation costs money. Leaving our poorest people to rot for the sake of paying a bit more tax has no place in civilisation.

duchess you’re post made me very sad. Former labour voter too. Am not Jewish but anti-semitism is the top reason I’m not voting labour. I like my (labour) MP but we absolutely cannot tolerate this as a society. All our parties are becoming too extreme. Whilst I’m not a fan of Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem’s are more tolerant, And I don’t believe we’d ever had the Brexit referendum if they were still in coalition. They also have the experience of relatively recently being in government and probably matured a lot rather than being the party of opposition (where they could have fanciful election policies they were never held accountable for. They were burnt by student fees, but that’s a far lesser crime than the risks Corbyn, Johnson et al propose).

(My own grammar made me cringe)

Our household income is significantly above 80k and yes, we vote labour. We care about what is best for society as a whole, not just about ourselves.

I'm not generally a Labour voter (tend towards Lib Dems and Greens), but paying a little extra tax wouldn't put me off. £80000 is a huge amount to earn (I can only dream of that much!) unless you live somewhere very expensive.

Agree with the majority of the posters on here - as an NHS consultant, I'm right on the edge of 80k, it's a lot of money compared to the average even though it doesn't always seem it as we have expanded our family and lifestyle to match our means.

The Tories rely on the kind of cognitive dissonance that the OP displays in that huge numbers of people refuse to accept that are doing better than average because it would mean accepting that they by definition have to be worse off in order to redress inequalities in society..

Agree with the majority of the posters on here - as an NHS consultant, I'm right on the edge of 80k

Can I just check that when your earnings rise to just over £100k, you'll continue to take on the extra shift even though it will be you lose 62% of your wages for that shift in tax and NIC, so you'd only "take home" 38% which has to cover your travel costs, possible child care costs, etc. No, thought not! It's a national scandal that the likes of GPs etc are cutting down their working hours and not taking on extra shifts to avoid the punitive 62% marginal tax rate on their earnings over £100k.

I am wondering whether to an extent anti-Semitism in the Labour party for this election is like the Troubles in Northern Ireland for Brexit - there are some people for who they know it exists but it is inconvenient and gets in the way for what they want (obviously not for everyone).

For some, I don't think it is that they don't believe Jewish people who are targeted by anti-Semitism but they don't 'get it'. I am one of those, but I do live in an area with a very low Jewish population. I understand it happens, but for the life of me I cannot understand why it does, especially in this day and age and after all of the suffering and persecution that Jewish people have suffered through past and recent history. I am so sorry for those who still face this now and feel unsafe in this country.