Humiliation for Rachel Reeves as ‘SackReeves.com’ website launched | Politics | News
conservatives We’ve started an online petition calling on Sir Keir Starmer to sack Rachel Reeves. It comes after the Chancellor was accused of misleading Britons about the country’s finances ahead of the Budget.
The petition aims to put pressure on the Prime Minister to “do the right thing” by sacking Ms Reeves. It comes after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published an account of his communications With Treasury on Friday.
A letter from the OBR revealed that as early as September 17 the Chancellor was informed that prevailing economic headwinds meant the black hole in the UK’s finances would be much smaller than previously believed. Later in October, he informed Ms. Reeves that the spending gap had been completely closed.
But Wednesday’s budget follows weeks of warnings from Ms. Reeves that she would have to make “hard choices” in her fiscal plan.
conservative leader Kemi Badenoch Published on
Downing Street has so far defended Ms Reeves. A No 10 spokesman insisted on Friday that the Chancellor was not misleading the public or markets when he warned of difficult decisions.
The website says: “Rachel Reeves wanted her budget for Benefits Street so badly she lied about the OBR’s forecasts. All this to justify breaking her promise not to increase tax on working people. Labour’s lies are costing us more and more. Sign the petition for Keir Starmer to do the right thing and sack Rachel Reeves.”
On November 4, Ms Reeves had laid the groundwork for the Budget with a speech in Downing Street; In this speech it was argued that tax rises were necessary to secure the UK’s economic future and that weak productivity growth would have “public finance consequences” in terms of lower tax revenue.
But the OBR’s letter to the Treasury Select Committee of MPs appeared to suggest that rising wages and improving the tax levy from inflation meant the gap had narrowed before he even made the speech.
Economist Ben Zaranko from the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank questioned the logic behind the briefings held during the Budget preparations. He wrote on social media: “At no point in the process did the OBR miss the Government’s fiscal rules by a wide margin. “I am stunned by the months of speculation and briefings.
“Was the plan to lead everyone to expect a big income tax increase, then surprise them by not doing it…?”
At the Budget on Wednesday, Ms Reeves increased taxes by £26bn, including freezing income tax thresholds. The tax rises came in response to falling economic forecasts, but also increased welfare spending due to the removal of the two-child benefit cap and a Labor rebellion against attempts to cut the welfare bill.
Ms. Reeves also used some of the tax revenue to build herself a bigger buffer against borrowing rules.
Ms Badenoch posted on social media: “Yet there’s more evidence, as if we needed it, that the Chancellor should be sacked. Reeves has lied to the public for months to justify record tax rises for greater prosperity. His budget wasn’t about stability. It was about politics: bribing Labor MPs to save his own skin. Disgraceful.”
Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride called on Ms Reeves to resign. He said: “Rachel Reeves’ broken tax promises and the briefing fiasco in the run-up to the Budget have real consequences for our economy and for people across the country. The Chancellor must now do the right thing and resign.”
