Ten times Labour ruled out tax raids

Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer
The Labour leader and Chancellor have come under fire for appearing to break a series of promises made about tax cuts - Reuters

LBC/BBC

The Government has come under fire after Rachel Reeves’s first Budget appeared to break a string of promises about taxes.

The Telegraph has compiled a rundown of the pledges given by Sir Keir Starmer’s party – despite them now seeming to lie in tatters.

1. Reed’s U-turn on inheritance tax

Steve Reed, now the Environment Secretary, last year ruled out scrapping inheritance tax relief for farmland, known as agricultural property relief (APR). He told the Financial Times: “We have no intention of changing APR.”

But family farms will be hit with the tax after Ms Reeves, the Chancellor, unveiled plans to scale back agricultural relief on land valued at more than £1 million in the Budget.

It was one of three “inheritance tax loopholes” she closed, including a limit on how much business owners and farmers can leave to their families tax-free.

2. Starmer: ‘I want to see lower taxes’

At the start of the year, Sir Keir told the i newspaper: “In principle, I do want to see lower taxes… But the first lever that we look for is the growth lever because, in the end, that’s the only way to get the money that we need to fund our public services.”

The tax burden will reach a record high as a result of the first Budget by Sir Keir’s Government, following a £40 billion rise in taxation.

3. ‘Lower tax burden’

Similarly, Sir Keir told LBC Radio in January: “I do want to see a lower tax burden on working people … I do want to do that.”

While Labour has not raised income tax, employees’ National Insurance or VAT, working people will nonetheless be affected by the rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions, which Ms Reeves has admitted is likely to mean smaller pay rises.

4. ‘We won’t stop now’ on lower taxes

In his response to Jeremy Hunt’s final Budget in March, Sir Keir said: “Because we have campaigned to lower the tax burden on working people for the whole Parliament – and we won’t stop now – we will support the cuts to National Insurance today.”

After the Government’s first Budget, the tax burden is now projected to reach its highest comparable level on record.

5. ‘No intention of making working people pay more’

In her response to the March Budget, Ms Reeves said: “We think that, with the tax burden at a 70-year high, we would like taxes on working people to be lower, and we have no intention of making working people pay more in tax.”

6. Reeves: We want taxes on workers to be lower

During the general election campaign in May, Ms Reeves said: “What I want, and Keir wants, is taxes on working people to be lower.

“And we certainly won’t be increasing income tax or National Insurance if we win at the election… We won’t increase income tax or National Insurance. We would like taxes on working people to be lower.”

7. ‘No additional tax rises’

Ms Reeves appeared to rule out a host of tax increases that have since come to pass, including a rise in employers’ National Insurance, during a separate election interview. “There are no additional tax rises needed beyond the ones that I’ve said,” she said.

8. ‘We don’t need higher taxes’

Rachel Reeves said she did not “want to” raise taxes beyond the increases she had set out, including VAT on private schools and an end to the non-dom tax status.

“We don’t need higher taxes – what we need is growth. I don’t want to, and I have no plans to, increase any taxes beyond those which we have already set out,” she said in June.

9. ‘No plans to increase tax on working people’

A month before the election, Ms Reeves said: “Labour has no plans to increase taxes on working people… It’s Rishi Sunak who lied 12 times in the debate about Labour’s tax plans. The truth is it’s the Conservatives that have taken the tax burden to the highest it’s been in 70 years.”

10 Reeves’s National Insurance pledge

Speaking in July after she claimed to have found a £22bn black hole at the heart of the public finances, Ms Reeves appeared to rule out any increase in National Insurance.

“We also made other commitments in our manifesto, not to increase National Insurance, VAT, or Income Tax for the duration and we’ll stick with those,” she said.