Richard Leonard, the new Scottish Labour leader, has signalled in his first policy speech that he wants to see higher taxes on wealthy property owners to fund public services.

With the UK party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, by his side, Leonard said he believed the wealthy should pay higher taxes on their land and buildings and there should be a one-off wealth tax for the richest 1%.

He announced the formation of a party commission to review possible wholesale reforms of Scotland’s income and property taxation system, from council tax through to inherited wealth, which is due to report by next summer.



“The richest 1% in Scotland today already own more personal wealth than the poorest 50% put together,” Leonard told a party event in Glasgow. “This is unjust. This needs to change.”

A former GMB political officer, Leonard won the Scottish Labour leadership contest comfortably against his centrist rival, Anas Sarwar, after being backed heavily by pro-Corbyn union leaders and Corbyn’s allies.

While the tensions between Labour’s leftwingers and its centrists are far less pronounced at Holyrood than at Westminster, the leadership campaign quickly became caught up in the struggle for overall control of Labour at UK level.

In an implicit criticism of Scottish Labour’s previously centrist positioning under Kezia Dugdale, whose sudden resignation in August led to the Scottish leadership vacancy, Corbyn stressed the case for unity between the UK and Scottish parties.

“Now our whole party and movement must campaign together to inspire people in every nation and region of the UK to have the confidence to be a country that genuinely cares for all,” he said. Leonard’s victory was “a turning point for our party in Scotland,” Corbyn added.

In a further sign that he plans sweeping and potentially radical changes to Scottish Labour’s policy platform, Leonard said there would be 12 policy reviews ranging from climate change policy to social care and the NHS, renationalising water and rail, to housing and child poverty.

There are few specific details so far on Leonard’s tax plans. Sarwar wrong-footed him in the final stages of the leadership campaign by calling for a new 50p top tax band on those earning over £100,000, Leonard responded by suggesting a windfall tax on the wealthy and two new tax bands.

The Scottish government said at the time that Leonard’s plan to raise about £3.7bn from a one-off windfall tax of 1% on the wealthiest 10% in Scotland would need consent from Westminster.

Leonard’s immediate challenge is to respond to a request from Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, that opposition parties at Holyrood suggest changes to Scotland’s income tax before her government’s draft budget is published on 14 December.

He is expected to stick to Scottish Labour’s existing policy, supporting reintroduction of the 50p top rate for those earning over £150,000 along with a 1p rise in all other bands. The Scottish government’s own data shows this would raise more than any other proposals.

However, Leonard’s speech – in which he again accused Sturgeon of managing austerity rather than fighting it – suggested it would be only an interim measure. His proposals involve significantly higher spending than Scottish Labour has suggested previously.

Using the phrase “real change” 15 times in his speech, he confirmed he wanted to see far greater central planning from the government around economic investment, energy strategy and climate change.

With Dugdale in Australia competing in the ITV reality show I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, Leonard launched an implicit attack on the Dugdale era by concluding: “Scottish Labour has a new unity of purpose. Scottish Labour has changed, and now we are determined to change Scotland.”

