Reeves accuses Sunak of lying after Treasury’s warning on ‘£2,000 tax rise’ claim

The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has accused Rishi Sunak of lying after it emerged that a senior Treasury official warned Tory ministers not to say civil servants were behind their claim that a Labour government would increase taxes by £2,000.

The prime minister made the claim throughout his ITV head-to-head debate with Keir Starmer, saying “independent Treasury officials” had costed Labour’s policies “and they amount to a £2,000 tax rise for everyone”.

In a letter to the Labour party on Monday, James Bowler, the Treasury permanent secretary, said ministers had been told not to suggest civil servants had produced the figure at the heart of the Tory attack.

Related: Rishi Sunak v Keir Starmer – what did we learn?

Bowler said the figures should not be attributed to the civil service. In his letter to Darren Jones, the shadow Treasury chief secretary, he said a Tory document “includes costs beyond those provided by the civil service”.

“Costings derived from other sources or produced by other organisations should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service,” he said in a letter to Jones on 3 June.

“I have reminded ministers and advisers that this should be the case.”

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Reeves told broadcasters on Wednesday: “Rishi Sunak lied 12 times in the debate last night about Labour’s tax plans. The truth is it’s the Conservatives who have taken the tax burden to the highest it’s been in 70 years. That is the Conservatives’ record and their legacy.”

Claire Coutinho, one of the prime minister’s fiercest allies, had earlier doubled down on the attack. She said the figure came from “official costings from the Treasury”, filled with “brilliant, independent civil servants” who would “not be putting anything dodgy” in the costings briefing.

When questioned whether the Treasury had calculated the figures based on “assumptions from special advisers”, Coutinho told BBC Breakfast: “If I could just push back on that, because I’ve worked in the Treasury and I can tell you that these are brilliant, independent civil servants and they would not be putting anything dodgy in there. These are all policies that have been set out by the Labour party and actually, if anything, they are underestimating the cost to families.

“So the costs that came out of the policies is £2,000, but if you look at the most expensive policy, it’s one in my area – it’s their green plan, and they’ve said multiple times that would cost the country £28bn a year and they then actually watered down the cost but they kept the policies.”

She later clarified the tax rise would be “over the course of parliament. It’s £2,000 over four years”, when speaking to Today on BBC Radio 4.

The figure comes from a document produced by the Tories which made a number of assumptions to estimate the cost that might be attached to potential Labour policies, which they estimated would cost £38.5bn in total. The Tories claimed this would result in tax rises totalling £2,094 for each working household.

Sunak said Starmer’s policies would “raid” pension pots and raise taxes on families.

Starmer appeared slow to push back on Sunak’s tax claims. However, the shadow paymaster general, Jonathan Ashworth, said late on Tuesday night that the Labour leader had been “very clear” the attack “was absolute garbage”.

Ashworth told the Today programme on Wednesday: “I feel that Rishi Sunak was exposed as desperate last night – desperately lying about Labour’s tax plans, making accusations about Labour’s tax plans which are categorically untrue. Labour will not put up income tax, will not put up national insurance, will not put up VAT.

“Rishi Sunak was resorting to lying because he is desperate and what do desperate people do when in a corner? They lie. We saw it with Boris Johnson over parties in Downing Street in lockdown, and Rishi Sunak has exposed himself as no better and no different than Boris Johnson with his lies last night.”

The prime minister said in his opening statement: “Beyond raising your taxes and raiding your pensions, no one knows what Labour would actually do.

“But you know what I would do? I’ll cut your taxes, protect your pension and reduce immigration.”

Sunak went on to later say that Starmer would “reverse all of the changes I’ve made” which would “cost everyone and you thousands of pounds”.

The Labour leader took some time to completely rubbish Sunak’s claims but eventually said: “This £2,000 he keeps saying it’s going to cost is absolute garbage.”