• NEIL, Lord Kinnock, in the Islington Tribune’s interview suggests that Labour’s manifesto is right not to offer to scrap the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, for fear of breaking their election promises, (Lord Kinnock: You can’t always say what you want to do ­– that’s part of leading a political party, June 21).

But while Labour and Kinnock are right that parties need to both be financially responsible and to keep their promises to voters, Labour is wrong to let this inequitable and toxic policy stay in place.

The two-child benefit cap is one of our country’s biggest causes of child poverty and affects hundreds of thousands of UK households, as many as 70,000 children in London alone.

We live in one of the richest countries on the planet, yet one where nurses are using food banks, schools are crumbling, housing is unaffordable to many, and hospital and dentist appointments are like gold dust. Meanwhile, the climate emergency continues to accelerate.

The Green Party’s manifesto proposes tax changes that would raise £50-70billion per year, to address these problems, including removing the top national insurance limit, so that high earners pay a bit more, and a wealth tax of 1 per cent per year on people with assets over £10million and 2 per cent on assets over £1billion.

Only a tiny minority of people would pay this tax, and it would be an insignificant proportion of their overall wealth.

The suggestion that such a wealth tax would frighten the super-rich into leaving the country is a fairytale, barely credible.

Many people, indeed, tell us they would be happy to pay a little more for better public services, especially to help those worst affected by 14 years of Tory austerity. Wealthy people recognise the need to mend “broken Britain”, too, for their own benefit as much as everyone else’s.

It might not be a real loss to the country, however, if any entrepreneurs who are happy to make millions out of the UK and prefer not to pay their share to address its problems choose to take their business elsewhere!

Labour’s mantra for this election is that we need a change from the Tories, but that isn’t enough. We don’t just need change for its own sake, we need a change for the better.

CARNE ROSS
Green Party Candidate for Islington South and Finsbury