Keir Starmer refuses to rule out manifesto-busting tax rises 12 times in TV interview
Sir Keir Starmer refused to rule out manifesto tax rises for workers 12 times in an interview, although he said it was “important for politicians to stay true to their word”.
During his visit to the G20 summit in South Africa, the Prime Minister refused to re-deliver on his manifesto commitments ahead of next week’s budget, in what was widely seen as a make or break for his government.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to raise taxes on Wednesday as she seeks to plug a multi-billion pound black hole in the country’s finances.
Asked whether leaders should keep their promises, Sir Keir told Sky News: “Yes, it’s important for politicians to keep their promises.”
“We obviously have big decisions to make in the budget,” he added.
But despite multiple follow-ups, he dodged questions about whether Labor would deliver on its pre-election promise to voters. These include whether income tax thresholds will be frozen; This means that inflation is pushing more and more people to pay higher rates.
Earlier this week Labor ruled out freezing income tax thresholds.
The Conservative Party said extending the freeze would breach Labour’s manifesto promise not to impose extra taxes on workers.
Ms Reeves was warned that a combination of higher borrowing, slow economic growth and Labor U-turns meant she would have to raise taxes or remove key borrowing rules in the Budget, potentially risking market turmoil.
In his interview, Sir Keir highlighted years of austerity, a “bungled” Brexit deal, the pandemic and the Ukraine war.
Previously, Ms Reeves warned in an interview with The Times Magazine that Britain needed to take a “different path” on the economy and could not continue with “mess”.
On Friday, the government suffered another blow as official figures showed government borrowing was £3bn higher in October than the Office for Budget Responsibility had expected.
Ms Reeves said in the interview: “Debt is very high, but you can’t cut it overnight. Public services are abysmal, but we don’t have a lot of money to spend on them and we should make good use of what we have.”
“We can’t continue like this and make a mess. We need to make some decisions to go down a different path.”
But he also lashed out at his critics, saying he was “tired of people explaining to me how to be chancellor”.
Earlier this week, Stephen Millard, deputy director of macroeconomics at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, said: Independent Positive aspects of extending the freeze on thresholds would include that it would “raise revenue, albeit in parliament later rather than now, and broaden the tax base, eliminating to some extent the need for an increase in the base rate”.
But he said any freeze could break the party’s manifesto pledge and hit middle-income households, who would have to pay higher rates of tax in future.
“And given that there is a promise of future taxes that can always be rolled back rather than raising taxes today, it may not calm markets,” he warned.
