{"id":10427,"date":"2026-04-05T10:58:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/?p=10427"},"modified":"2026-04-05T10:58:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:58:01","slug":"sarwar-makes-income-tax-pledge-as-labour-rallies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/?p=10427","title":{"rendered":"Sarwar makes income tax pledge as Labour rallies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Anas-Sarwar-for-website.png\" alt=\"Anas Sarwar\" class=\"wp-image-189408 lazyload\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"794\" height=\"526\" src=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Anas-Sarwar-for-website.png\" alt=\"Anas Sarwar\" class=\"wp-image-189408 lazyload\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Anas-Sarwar-for-website.png 794w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Anas-Sarwar-for-website-300x199.png 300w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Anas-Sarwar-for-website-768x509.png 768w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Anas-Sarwar-for-website-600x397.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Anas Sarwar: Scots are paying more but getting less (pic: DB Media Services)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Anas Sarwar has been re-energised by a new poll showing an upturn in support for Scottish Labour that could deprive the SNP of a majority of seats at Holyrood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">New polling shows Mr Sarwar\u2019s party edging clear of Reform UK whose support has fallen to its lowest  level in more than a year following a series of setbacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Pollster Sir John Curtice has said that the drop in Reform\u2019s support was \u201cbad news\u201d for the nationalists. The Norstat poll for<em> The Sunday Times<\/em> puts the SNP on course for just 57 seats \u2014 eight short of a majority \u2014 with Labour the main opposition party on 20 seats and Reform third on 16.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The uplift in support for Labour would suggest Mr Sarwar has managed to ride through the dip that followed his fall-out with Sir Keir Starmer. The Scottish Labour leader has said he has no regrets in calling for the Prime Minister\u2019s resignation and polling would indicate the public have backed his stand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Reform\u2019s support has drifted after its Scottish leader Malcolm Offord was forced to apologise for a homophobic joke and a number of candidates withdrew from the campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Today Mr Sarwar took the fight to the SNP by promising not to raise income tax for five years and accusing John Swinney\u2019s government of breaking a promise In 2021 to freeze income tax rates and bands. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cInstead, more than a million Scots now pay more income tax than they would elsewhere in the UK.,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone earning \u00a333,500 or more is paying more, including nurses, teachers and police officers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cSomeone earning \u00a345,000 now pays around \u00a3400 more, while someone on \u00a350,000 pays around \u00a31,500 more. Meanwhile, the maximum saving anyone gets from the SNP\u2019s system is just \u00a340 a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Mr Sarwar added that \u201cScots are paying more, but Scotland is still falling behind because the SNP has failed to grow the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He said SNP leader and First Minister has been at the heart of the SNP\u2019s fiscal policy for 19 years, \u201cand the result is a low-growth, low-pay economy where hard working Scots are asked to pay more and more while public services still struggle and family finances are stretched to breaking point.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cA Scottish Labour government will not raise income tax during the next parliamentary term. Its ambition is to cut tax over the course of the parliament when growth allows, starting with those facing the highest marginal tax rates. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cScottish Labour says that means getting the basics right, ending waste and delivering the growth Scotland needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Simple Share Buttons Adder (8.5.3) simplesharebuttons.com -->           \t            <\/div>\n<p><script>\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\nif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\nn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\ns.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script',\n'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n fbq('init', '1192059580980274'); \nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anas Sarwar: Scots are paying more but getting less (pic: DB Media Services) Anas Sarwar has been re-energised by a new poll showing an upturn in support for Scottish Labour&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wangzhuan-idea.icu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}