Shropshire Labour officials back shadow chancellor's distinct new line

Telford & Wrekin Council leader Councillor Kuldip Sahota and Shrewsbury's Councillor Kevin Pardy praised Mr McDonnell's pledge to crack down on tax avoidance by large companies to balance the nation's books fairly.

"They are international companies, but they make a lot of money out of British consumers, and they are obliged to pay British tax," Mr Sahota said.

Setting the scene for tax rises on high earners, Mr McDonnell told the party's Brighton conference that a future Labour government would raise money through "fairer, more progressive taxation".

Councillor Sahota said he supported the principle of people on higher incomes paying more tax, but wanted to hear more details about who would be affected.

Shrewsbury Councillor Kevin Pardy said Mr McDonnell had set out a vision which was distinct from that offered by the Conservatives.

"I think it's important to have something different," he said. "Some people complain that political parties are all the same, that the right wing of the Labour Party is similar to the Tories. That can't be said any more."

Mr McDonnell said a future Labour government would tackle the deficit and live within its means. But he said Labour would balance the books by targeting corporate tax avoidance and by strategically investing in industries to stimulate economic growth.

"Austerity is not an economic necessity, it's a political choice," he said.

Mr McDonnell said Labour would deliver a "real living wage", higher than the £7.20 'national living wage' announced by George Osborne in the Budget. In a nod to Mr Corbyn's 'people's quantitative easing', Mr McDonnell said that "active monetary policy" would be used to stimulate demand, with a national investment bank offering long-term finance for investment.

Vodafone, which was named in Mr McDonnell's speech, said there was no truth in his allegations about its tax affairs.

"Vodafone has always paid its taxes and for the last financial year we paid around £360 million in direct taxes in the UK," said a statement from the company.

In his speech to the party conference, Mr McDonnell also attacked the Government's austerity plan, while criticising George Osborne for not getting the deficit wiped out as quickly as he had vowed.

McDonnell said Labour would end the "brutal" treatment of disabled people being judged fit to work and losing their benefits.

But Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Baroness Susan Kramer said: "Labour's proposals lack any recognition that delivering growth, fixing the economy and eliminating the deficit involves taking difficult decisions."

Mr McDonnell said: "When we challenge their austerity programme, the Conservatives accuse us of being deficit deniers. Let me make this absolutely clear. Of course we accept that there is a deficit but we will take no lessons from a chancellor who promised to wipe out the deficit in one parliament but didn't get through half."

He added: "Labour's plan to balance the books will be aggressive. We will force people like Starbucks, Vodafone, Amazon and Google and all the others to pay their fair share of taxes."

He also said he would cut some of the £13 billion worth of tax breaks given to buy-to-let landlords for repairing their properties, when they do not undertake the repairs.

Appealing to former shadow cabinet ministers who refused to serve in Mr Corbyn's cabinet, Mr McDonnell said: "In the spirit of solidarity upon which our movement was founded I say come back and help us succeed."