5 Policies Labour Pledged To Fund With The Bank Bonus Tax

5 Ideas Labour Said They'd Pay For With The Same Bank Bonus Tax
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Labour Leader Ed Miliband (left) applauds shadow chancellor Ed Balls after he addressed delegates on the second day of the Labour Party Annual Conference in Brighton.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Labour has unveiled an extended jobs guarantee for young people, which would run for five years if the party returns to power, with the pledge funded by cutting tax relief for rich pensioners and reintroducing a tax on bankers' bonuses.

The Tories have seized on the decision to pay for it by taxing bankers' bonuses, claiming that it has been used to find ten previous pledges. Labour protest that the jobs guarantee is the "only policy the bank bonus tax will fund", adding: "Nothing else is a spending commitment".

The number of pledges Labour promised to fund with the bank bonus tax has been over-egged by the Tories as they produced a list of ten policies - with a combined cost of £30.2 billion - bundling in all the ideas Labour want to fund with an increased levy on banks' balance sheets, which is a different proposal.

However since 2010, Ed Miliband and his shadow chancellor Ed Balls have suggested they could tax bank bonuses to fund at least five different ideas.

We know bank bonuses are eye-wateringly huge, but can they really stretch to pay for all these things at once?

Labour pledges funded by the bank bonus tax
Cutting the deficit (01 of05)
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Speaking on 25 March in 2011 at a Fresh Ideas Q&A session, Miliband said: "You’re right that tax should play a part in reducing the deficit... that’s why we’ve said there should be another bankers’ bonus tax this year."
Turning empty shops into community centres(02 of05)
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Launching Labour's four-point plan to save British high streets in 2011, Labour's shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said "it will give £5 million, raised from a repeat of the bank bonus tax to councils to transform units that are empty into cultural, community or learning centres."
Build more homes(03 of05)
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Labour pledged in 2011 to build 25,000 more homes using £1.2 billion from the "£2 billion that could be raised this year from repeating the bank bonus tax".
More funding for the regions(04 of05)
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Labour pledged in 2011 to boost the regional growth fund by £200 million using the "£2 billion that could be raised this year from repeating the bank bonus tax".
Another youth jobs scheme (05 of05)
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Labour pledged to spend £600 million on a "fund for youth jobs" using the "£2 billion that could be raised this year from repeating the bank bonus tax".