A former Labour MP has revealed that she successfully contested her council tax banding twice in order to pay different rates.
In a discussion about Labour’s plans to raise council tax, Luciana Berger defended claims Keir Starmer had not answered questions on whether the party was going to raise the tax, telling people to ‘go to the grey section of the manifesto’.
Speaking on GB News Luciana Berger said:
“In preparation for our conversation today, I was listening and looking very closely at not just what Keir Starmer has said but also those people that are going to be in charge around him in a potential Labour cabinet.
“And they've been very, very clear and they said look at the costings, look at what's in our manifesto, not just the pages.
“I would urge any of your viewers to have a look into and read the Labour manifesto. But look, go to the grey section as well. The grey section at the end, the costing, was very clear where the money's going to come from, where it’s going to be generated from.
“Labour has rightly talked about the lock. You can't judge one party on the actions of another party. They are not the same and Keir has, I think, been very, very clear in all of the debates and discussions that he's had, that we need to return some form of decency in our politics.
“There is a really important practical point that there is an opportunity for people to contest their [council tax] banding: I’ve certainly done it twice and been successful.
“So people should be made aware that that opportunity exists and there are some challenges about how areas have evolved and developed over time.
“But again I think it speaks to this question of being direct and being clear and I've listened very closely to what's being said and in particular I was listening to the interviews with Rachel Reeves, who's going to be in charge of the money. And she was very, very clear when she was asked about Council Tax, that this is not something that they're going to pursue.”
