Watch Keir refuse to rule out MORE brutal tax hikes despite Reeves’ promise that Budget misery was the end of it
SIR Keir Starmer has refused to rule out more crippling tax hikes — despite Rachel Reeves vowing that the Budget misery was the end of it.
The PM dodged a challenge to back his Chancellor’s promise, sparking fears businesses could face yet another raid.
Ms Reeves told business leaders at the CBI conference on Monday she was “not going to come back for more” in the next five years.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch used today’s PMQs to tore into Sir Keir, demanding he stand by his Chancellor’s word.
She said: “At the CBI conference on Monday, the Chancellor said ‘I am clear, I am not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes’.
“I know that telling the truth to this House is important to the Prime Minister,. so will he repeat his Chancellor’s pledge now?”
But the Prime Minister blamed the Conservatives for a £22 billion “black hole” and claimed Labour was “fixing the foundations” of the economy.
He then added: “I am not going to write the next five years of Budgets here at this despatch box. But we said we wouldn’t hit the payslips of working people, we passed the Budget, we invested in the future, and we kept that promise.”
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds also left the door wide open to future tax grabs yesterday as he appeared to water down her Cabinet colleague’s pledge.
He only said any future measures would not be “comparable” to the £25 billion raid in last week’s Budget.
Facing MPs at the Commons business committee, he said: “What the Chancellor was saying, is to make clear that that need to fix the foundations is a one-time deal, that there will not be a further ask of the business community comparable to what we had to do at the beginning of this Parliament.”
A spokesman for the Treasury also declined to repeat Ms Reeves’s promise on tax.
He said: “As the Chancellor said, this was a once in a Parliament Budget to wipe the slate clean, repair the nation’s finances and begin to fix public services.
“We have taken tough decisions to bring stability back so the focus can now be on growing the economy and reforming public services.”